


Ahsoka's True Trials

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Series: Abandoned Concepts [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Multi, Twincest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-09-06 18:48:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 47,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8764774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: Ahsoka walked away from the Temple, away from her life as a Jedi, but the Force was not done with her. What Mace had told her was her Trials was nothing compared to what the Force wishes of the Daughter's Chosen One.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Again, themes and plot devices from this were used in other works that were completed. This one is a bit further along, even even it didn't go through removing the Sith.
> 
> The Leia/Luke/Han is a minor bit, and mostly innuendo with intent, nothing graphic. The Rex/Ahsoka is more complicated, referencing their adult relationship, and being mindful of her being underage.

Ahsoka Tano, former padawan, had no idea what to do other than get away from the Order as fast as she could.

Barriss had been right about one thing, much as that thought and name and very idea stabbed Ahsoka in her heart. The Jedi had lost themselves so completely that maybe there was nothing to salvage.

"Record message, delay send, one standard hour," she told her communicator, getting a beep from it. "To Anakin. Please give me time, but I will always hold your lessons close. You're still Skyguy to me. And I hope to the Force and back this storm that is the Order does not destroy any more of you. Be safe… and be strong." 

Message recorded, she hid the communicator just on the edge of the Temple property, having stopped near a planter there to decide her course.

++++

Her course, apparently, spiraled into the mid-levels of Coruscant, as she realized that she couldn't tolerate not having some kind of weapon. She'd checked her ident card already; all legal warnings were removed, but the verification of her status as 'private citizen' and the more limited visa protection of 'immigrant' on Coruscant told her she needed to get what she wanted and get off-world.

She was pretty sure she could hire on with a freighter pretty easily, once she had a blaster, some clothes, and a basic gear bag. There was a stipend attached to her ident card, though she had little way of knowing what it would get her. Money was not something she regularly dealt with, though, like the troopers, she was adept at picking up local currency and spending it when they were in settled areas.

A prickle at the back of her neck, like something was pulsing inside the Force drew her into a merchant's shop, claiming to have esoteric artifacts from all over the galaxy. She followed the pull, because what else did she have to do?

Ahsoka saw lots of pretty items, some that merely looked curious, but then… there it was. A small pyramid with inlays that looked like a language of some kind. She'd never seen anything quite like it, and couldn't help the impulse to reach out, touch that pulsing power….

++++

The world had finally stopped shifting and twisting, unmaking and remaking reality, it felt like. Smells assaulted the huntress's keen nose, the smell of eternal fetid decay that came with a swamp. Likewise, her skin was pressed by an unending dampness that she resented with all of her plains-borne soul. And the NOISE!

She actually had to reach up and hold her montrals against the cacophony of birds and insects and who knew what… which let her filter out the sound of a ship's thrusters.

"Kriff!"

She had no weapons, still, no armor, not even a poncho to help hide her colorful markings in this drab, bland place she was in. And she still wanted to regurgitate everything she'd managed to eat in the last week from all of reality bending around her.

Now she could see the ship angling for what might be solid ground, and it was far too close, and she was never going to be able to evade the way she needed to…

The ship looked weird. Long nose, four nacelles that were probably lasers, and… yes, that was an Astromech bump behind the cockpit. Ahsoka pushed herself to her feet, ignoring the squish of the ground, and looked for somewhere to hide from the pilot or the mech.

And then she fell back to her knees, as all of the stress and that little physical effort took its toll and she did lose her meals. If this was the Force's sense of punishment for leaving her men, for leaving her Master, it was doing a great job on the misery level.

Luke had found that this time his instruments were working just fine even once they came down into the atmosphere, and he could locate Yoda's home easily. There were still so many life forms that making sense out of them was impossible, but he managed to land neatly on solid ground for once. He popped the cockpit, went to toss out the ultralight ladder that would let him get back aboard -- and froze, because his sense of the Force was telling him **firmly** that he needed to pay attention off to his eleven o'clock. He stared that way, trying to see... and saw a sick being. Or at least, from the sounds and the positioning and the arm wrapped around her middle, he thought sick was an apt assessment. 

Yoda hadn't mentioned another sentient being nearby, but then, there was a **lot** Yoda hadn't told him! 

He tried to let the anger go, to push it away from him and reach for serenity, and busied himself with getting down out of his X-Wing. "No, you stay here for now," he told Artoo softly, "I'll be back to get you in just a minute." 

Artoo protested, but he shook his head and turned to trot towards the stranger, wanting to help if he could. 

Ahsoka sobbed a little as the heaving stilled on the notes of an astromech rising above the sounds of the swamp. It sounded so much like Artooey. She had worse problems though, as the feeling of a sentient coming close solidified with the fact it was a Force-using sentient.

She wiped her mouth on the back of her hand, scrubbed that down her pants leg, and then wobbled to her feet, getting her bearings. She would run, if she had to, but the person was too close to not stand her ground long enough to figure him out.

Black overtunic on a black shirt with black pants… that was almost comforting, even if the cut wasn't anything like Skyguy's wardrobe. One gloved hand… again, strangely comforting. Lightsaber that didn't feel twisted, dark straight hair around a pale face… maybe this person wouldn't be so bad.

"Hello?" Luke called from a couple of meters away, pausing to look at -- that was definitely a female, by the sense of her presence -- her. Small horns, lifting from what looked almost like Twi'lek lekku, but striped, vibrantly colored in white and blue. Clothing that didn't look practical for this swamp, but was otherwise nothing exceptional. White markings across her face (tattoo, paint, natural? he had no idea), her skin a vibrant shade of orange. 

He didn't think he'd seen anyone of her species before, but _that_ was no surprise! "Are you alright?" 

"Not really." She didn't know him. How could she not know him at all? There was something vaguely familiar about him, but he was a human. They tended to look vaguely familiar to one another. However, he felt… in the Light, touched by an edge of Dark maybe. Mindful of where his hands were and his lightsaber, she twisted a little on the balls of her feet, ready to run if needed.

"I'm pretty sure I don't know you, which is really weird. My name's Ahsoka Tano," she offered. She had to steel herself to say it; her trial had been too publicized.

"Why would it be 'weird'? I'm certain I don't know you, but my name's Luke Skywalker. Is there anything I can do to help you?" 

Ahsoka's guts cramped and her head swam a little harder. She'd felt worse, but that was under the virus. Now it was just that the reality around her made no kriffing sense. She wrapped an arm back around her middle and reached the other hand up to her montrals, trying to soothe the mad rush of blood in the outer tissue there.

"Maybe I got poisoned. Maybe this is all a bad dream. Or maybe… maybe this is me dying and everything else was the hallucination," she said out loud. "Because I swear you just claimed to be a Skywalker and the only Jedi Skywalker I know is … was my master. And you don't look like Skyguy… much."

Was insanity a side-effect of the Force? The thought was specious and ridiculous, but Luke couldn't help it. After Ben, and his first meeting with Yoda, and the lies they'd both told him (well, told and perpetuated), and trying to stop him from going to help Leia and Han... 

"Skyguy?" he asked, curious and startled. He couldn't imagine a man that could have become Darth Vader allowing that kind of a nickname, though he thought _he_ sort of liked it. But wait, hold up, she'd said 'the only Jedi Skywalker' as though there were many Jedi -- 

He cut that thought off, too, shoving it aside for later. 

She managed an eye-roll, though it hurt her head more. "Anakin Skywalker, Hero with No Fear, blah blah? Seriously? Where are you from that you haven't heard of me? My trial at least made news even if the press prefer to mob him at every chance." She peered at him intently, hating that the light was so poor. Maybe he did look a little more like Skyguy than just the clothes and glove choice. But that was impossible. Anakin surely would have told her if he had a Jedi brother. Or she would have heard of it while she was a Youngling. Or something.

Luke had frozen at her first word, almost losing the rest of her words in the pound of blood in his ears, but he **had** to listen. Had to hear what she had to say. And she -- she had been a student to his father? Had she known Ben? Had she -- could she -- 

There was no sense in wishing for the impossible. What trial? 'The press prefer to mob him'... really? They had? "Well, I'm from Tatooine, but I don't think that's really the problem here. You -- you knew Anakin Skywalker?" 

Tatooine. Her nose wrinkled at that. "Sand and hot! Bah." She then nodded to the question. "I'm… I was his padawan. But right now I am very confused. I was on Coruscant and I touched something calling with the Force. Then I was here."

She worried at her lip with her canines, nearly drawing blood. This had to be a Force illusion.

'Padawan'. Yoda had used that word once, but never really explained it. From his sense of her, it meant 'student', and that only confused him more. His father -- the Jedi Knight -- had had a student? Ben -- 

\-- and the mere thought of Ben had anger surging through him again. He fought it down, shaking his head, watching this, this girl, this _impossible_ girl chewing on her mouth. She had sharp fangs, it looked like. But then, so did Chewie, and no-one could ask for a better friend. 'Coruscant'... that was the old name for Imperial City, but nobody _used_ that anymore. He managed not to say it aloud, and replied only. "You're so right about Tatooine. Also, now you're on Dagobah, which means I join you in pretty complete confusion." 

"Dagobah… out past Sluis Van, right?" she asked, even as that made even less sense. She'd never been on Dagobah. And it wasn't a warned planet, but she could swear there was a Dark presence here, like… like Mortis.

The mere thought of that place, of the fact she **knew** she was missing memories from whatever happened there, made her shudder again.

The man kept getting angry. She'd felt it a couple of times, but he kept pushing it down. It didn't help her reactions to his name, or the clothes, or all the other ways she was seeing glimpses of her Master… and she felt scared. Scared, and lonely, and pretty certain she should have just stayed and refused the Knighthood, so she'd have Skyguy and Rexter and her men all around right now.

She was seventeen, and even for a Togruta, that was fast pushing toward physical maturity. She was a Named Huntress. She should not be on the verge of an emotional meltdown!

"I'm sorry," she wound up saying before looking for a rock or a tree or anything that she could sit on or lean against. "I'm very unwell."

"Yeah, it is," Luke answered, nodding at the name of the shipyard world Leia and the rest of the Council were desperate to liberate from Imp control, "and... it's okay. I -- you don't look so good. There's not much on this world, but I do know one safe place. 

"Will you let me help you get there?" 

"You're a Skywalker," she said, as if that explained everything, and moved to let him lend her a shoulder or an arm or something. "Kind of short for one, but hey, not everybody gets to rock the tall, broody hero look."

She sounded so sure of his help -- sure of his help because he was a _Skywalker_ , when -- and then she said the rest of that and he couldn't help the short burst of laughter as he moved to lend her a shoulder, arm wrapping under hers. That was exactly what Leia had said, though 'stormtrooper' and not 'Skywalker'. The idea of _that man_ as 'tall, broody hero' sliced a vibroknife down his chest, though. 

She could feel turmoil in him, and wondered. Of course, nothing was making any sense, even as he guided her toward what was obviously a habitation of some kind. It looked small, and she tried hard not to think of a small, cramped place with air running out, and the beginning of what she had thought was …

No, she needed to stop thinking about **her**. 

"What's your ship?" she asked to distract herself. "Never seen one like that, and I thought Skyguy had shown me all the interesting fighters. It is a fighter, isn't it?"

"She's an X-Wing," Luke said, grasping onto the distraction as much as she was, "and they're something of a secret. Force _bless_ Incom, I have no idea what we could possibly do against TIEs without them and -- oh, heck, hang on a second!" 

He glanced back, knew Artoo wouldn't pick up his voice clearly, and palmed the hand-commlink out of his belt. "Artoo, I know I said I'd get you in a second, but she's sick. Hang on, okay? I'll be right back -- no, seriously, I will be right back. 

"And hey, at least this time you can't get swallowed, right?" 

Ahsoka perked up as soon as he said Artoo, even though that wasn't possible. And then she heard the beeping answer, and her eyes went wide. "Artooey? Artooey, is that you?!" she couldn't help but ask, her voice carrying through the commlink easily.

The wildly, incredulous beeping on the other end of Luke's commlink told Luke he was about to have his hands full of a droid trying to get himself down from the X-Wing.

"Oh no, oh _no_ you don't Artoo!" Luke dropped the commlink to just yell, and he looked at the girl next to him. "I've got to go back before he gets himself hurt," he apologized, carefully letting go to turn around and go back. 

How Artoo could possibly know this girl baffled him, but he knew that tone!

"Why can't he get here on his own? What happened to Artooey?" she demanded at his back, before trying to follow him.

What in all the Force was this nightmare?

Artoo, true to form, was out of the cuppola and contemplating how to fall in such a way as to be able to right himself. It was just not possible that Snips could be here! She hadn't came to the ship in years! And her voice matched early, early voice prints, not the one from seeing her on the ship!

Luke had leaned into the Force to run back -- so he was close enough to see Artoo evaluating the situation and wrap the Force around him. "I've got you, Artoo," he said, lifting his little friend down. It was easier to do now than it had been, he'd been practicing (and having seen Master Yoda float the X-wing so easily had changed his ideas of 'possible' profoundly), so it didn't take long. 

He crouched down to look into Artoo's optic, tipping his head. "You know her, buddy?" 

Artoo made a slightly distressed noise at Luke. He wanted to answer that direct question, but his interaction with her all fell within his military service for the Republic! He rocked erratically, trying to find a way around the lock on his memories.

Fulcrum wasn't locked, but the voice print said younger!

[Force Things!] he finally chirped up in frustration, the binary sharp and tinged with more emotion than usual.

"Hey, hey," Luke said, trying to be reassuring and steady as he saw Artoo's distress, "whatever's wrong, it's okay, I know you'd tell me if you could." 

It took a moment before he really translated that final chirp, having never heard Artoo mention or discuss the Force before. "You know, I think I _agree_ with you about that, buddy." 

Ahsoka caught up and saw Artoo… white and blue and silver, all memories of home being the _Resolute_ , the blue just that shade that was 501st blue… Rex joked Skyguy did that on purpose, and she felt tears welling up hot and thick.

"Artooey," she said softly, making herself walk the last little distance. Not even caring about the mud (she'd slogged through worse), she dropped on her knees and just reached out, hugging the droid.

Artoo, putting all the sensor scans in place, was left with his impression of this being a Force Thing, because voice and markings matched Commander Tano, except she didn't have her lightsabers.

[Snips. Unlock?]

"Oh!" She leaned back to see him clearly, and then rattled off a security encryption chain to make his memories open to his full access… and ability to share.

Luke had shifted back out of the way as the girl came close, so obviously focused on Artoo that it set an ache deep in his chest -- and then she dropped down and hugged him. That won her a firm place in his heart, especially when Artoo beeped plaintively at her and she promptly responded. He didn't even catch half of what she said, it was too quick, but Artoo's dome promptly spun in blatant overjoyed relief. For the first time in what felt like months, it was easy to smile, seeing his friend so happy. 

[Snips!] Artoo did a little happy dance for her, then let out a small warble of distress. [How small, short tailed?]

"I don't know, Artooey. I'm getting the feeling the Force is walking me through a new nightmare, like my life isn't bad enough," she answered him. "I just told Skyguy earlier that I had to leave, and now I'm meeting some guy who is way short calling himself Skywalker?"

Artoo let out a plaintive warble at that. [Lost my pilot. Pilot's son,] he told her.

The crash of her emotions was sudden and pronounced in the Force. Her lekku went still and pale while she radiated disbelief, shock, and finally, anger. 

"That's not possible! Rex would never let him down or let him get too far in over his head!"

'Pilot's son'. 

That phrase echoed back and forth in his head, his chest seizing up. _Artoo_ had known his father? When he was still -- 

\-- then why hadn't Ben seemed to know him, or had that just been another level of manipulation? 

Her emotions had been so clear, so sudden and powerful that they made him reel, and he just leaned against the X-wing's landing struts, trying to calm himself down. 

Ahsoka reined herself in and forced herself to her feet, looking at the man. "So you're Skyguy's kid. I think I see more of the Senator in you, but Artoo would know." She rested her hand on the dome of the astromech; his thrumming was a comfort to her, even as shaky as she felt. "And… it means I am way out of my time, which I thought was a myth. Artooey?"

[If my pilot just found the real traitor, it is not quite twenty-four standard years from when I last saw you like this,] Artoo offered. Ahsoka side-eyed him, hearing more in that, and the comment about 'short tailed' implied he'd seen her more mature.

"The Senator?" Luke asked, his eyes flying wide. "You -- you knew my _mother_ , too?" 

He'd attempt to cope with the idea of time travel later. Right now, the thought of talking to someone that had known his _mother_ had every bit of his attention. 

"Only person it could be. Skyguy doesn't look at any other being the way he looks at her, and she… well, she's wonderful," Ahsoka said, even as her brain wrapped around the idea he was struggling with this concept of her knowing Padmé Amidala. "I've seen the way people try to get his attention, and he's just oblivious. Then she's there? And he's wrapped tighter than Fives around Echo."

"You knew my mother," Luke repeated, stunned and feeling a touch of hope. Maybe, possibly, he could find out something about her -- or even Artoo could tell him? "I -- wow. That's... whatever the Force is up to, which is apparently _time travel_ , I -- " 

"If you don't know…" The distress in her lekku was even stronger, the blue nearly completely washed out to a pale gray. "No… no, I protected her too many times for her to be dead! And Skyguy, no way would he ever let anything happen to her!"

Artoo made a very tragic warble at that, remembering the argument, seeing the lift of his Senator… and he bumped lightly into Ahsoka's hip and leg. [Bad, lots of it, things that made no sense. Pilot's son knows nothing. I was locked. Could not tell, and Jedi did not unlock me. Either of them!]

Grey was _not_ a good color on her. Luke almost moved to support her, but then Artoo was against her hip and warbling almost too fast for him to catch. He understood just enough to catch the gist of it, and his mouth tightened a little more at that last. So Ben and Yoda both could have let Artoo inform him, could have broken whatever encoding had kept him quiet, and they hadn't. 

Now, why would _that_ have been? 

"Alright, Artooey. Alright." Ahsoka closed her eyes, trying to reach for a center that had eluded her ever since the Council threw her to the wolves. "Don't know how much Skyguy told you about things leading to him catching the traitor…" and oh that hurt to think of her that way, to know it, to admit it when they could have been something else, "but the Jedi Order are _not_ my favorite people right now.

"They tried to sweep it all under the rug, calling it my Trial, and offering me my Knighthood! So I'm not surprised the Jedi were idiots about you, and Force forbid they handle Skyguy's son with anything approaching sense!"

She loved him. 

This girl, this student of his father's, _loved_ Anakin Skywalker. Loved him and had faith in him... why, then, would the Force throw her **here** , when she would learn what -- 

\-- what he had become. What he'd done. 

Why would it do this to her? And he was very, very curious about what she meant. A traitor? And the Council (a Council of Jedi. How many? What had their role been?) offering her her Knighthood? 

Artoo made a sympathetic noise and pushed against her leg gently. [You fix?]

Ahsoka made a quiet little laugh, petting her hand over the dome. "Oh, Artoo. I'm only a … not even a padawan. I can't fix the Jedi--"

[All gone. Except one, and my now-pilot.]

That was too much. Ahsoka, even with Artoo under her hand, could not keep her feet on that idea. 

Luke lunged and caught her, arms going under her knees and back, not wanting her to hit the ground. "I've got you," he murmured, bracing against her weight, "I've got you." 

"You're no Rex, but thanks," she said, fumbling weakly for humor when her entire mind screamed with the impossibility of it. As angry and hurt as she was, she could not imagine a galaxy without Master Plo, Master Kenobi, Skyguy, General Secura… "Which one?" Ahsoka asked Artoo. "Who is the survivor?"

[Little, green,] Artoo said, and if Luke was reading the emotive context right, he didn't fully approve.

"Master Yoda?" Ahsoka could not help but bare her teeth.

"You're welcome," Luke answered, and then there was Artoo's annoyed tone and Ahsoka's half-snarl of his teacher's name... Luke couldn't exactly find it in himself to argue with her fierce expression, either. Not at the moment. 

She used his support to close her eyes and reach. She might not have a center right now, but she was 501st, and that meant doing the job that needed doing, no matter what. The planet, despite being Dark-tinged, held so much life, and the Force flowed heavily around her. With careful breathing, she brought her emotions in check, releasing the anger and fear into the Force, then used the Force to dampen her body's reactions to the time-twisting of reality.

When she opened her eyes, she was able to stand on her own. Soothing the brain from such trauma wasn't that different than fighting away injuries when battle called.

"There. A bit better." She looked at Luke and made a hand gesture. "I take it you're here to see Master Yoda… I can feel him, faintly, under the Dark that lurks. I'll go with you."

Luke nodded his agreement, looking down at her eyes and her much-improved complexion. "You're right, and okay. Maybe he'll be able to tell us something about why you're here." 

Artoo made a disparaging noise and rolled along behind them, grumbling in his binary way about the rough, marshy-wet ground. 

"Where are your boosters, Artooey?" Ahsoka asked.

[Ship duty. Took away from me.] He then made his distinctive razzing sound against that.

"And you've been locked, so you couldn't just ask for them back," Ahsoka logically decided. "Alright, I can probably rebuild them. I'm not the engineering genius Skyguy is but I did pass his exams to get my bead for it." A small part of her felt immense pride for passing his tests. He was the uncontested best pilot (which was why she failed to get that bead, and she knew she wasn't near as good as he was) and the best mechanical engineer the Order had. She didn't mind taking her second skill bead in lightsaber; he'd been so proud of her for winning that recognition for her jar'kai.

[I know this,] Artoo replied, blinking his optic at her. It had been a long time, but he remembered! 

"Boosters?" Luke asked, his eyes widening as he looked between them. "He should have thrusters? I had no idea, Artoo, I'm sorry. I've never seen an astromech with those..." 

"Saved us so many times." Ahsoka smiled at Artoo. "Didn't you?"

Artoo whistled smugly at that.

Luke just shook his head, having had entirely too many surprises in the last fifteen minutes, and finished the short trip to Master Yoda's doorstep quickly. The ancient one had not come out to greet them, and Luke slipped the door open easily, ducking down into a crouch to call softly, "Master?" 

A low noise from the back portion, the bedroom, drew his attention, and he hastened that way, while Artoo stayed outside, going around to one of the deep window-wells. 

Ahsoka followed Luke in, forcing herself to remain calm. She had loved Yoda as much as any other Youngling, and she needed his help. However, when she entered the bedroom area, she all but gasped; the vibrantly strong though aged Master was ebbing away in the Force.

"Master Yoda!" she exclaimed.

That made the ancient Jedi look from Luke, whom he had begun to greet, to the newcomer, and his eyes went wide.

"Ahsoka Tano, surprise and strange, this is," he said, before he coughed a little. "Luke, come you have. Surprised you are." He tried to sit up in the bed.

"I'm a lot of things, Master," Luke answered, biting his tongue on immediately picking an argument with him, moving to help support him instead, "but surprised is definitely one of them. Especially with... who she said she is. And _when_ Artoo told us she's from." 

He looked... so sick. It wasn't just the cough, it was... the sense of him. And if he was reading Ahsoka's voice correctly, she was as stunned and worried as he was. 

Ahsoka moved past the man to kneel by the bed, hands reaching out for the Master that had listened once upon a time to a child and made things right, no matter later events. She was gathering her ability to heal, little as it was, but he held a hand up.

"Waste not your efforts, Ahsoka," he told her. "Old, and ready, I am."

She shook her head. "Even as angry as I am, Master, it seems impossible to not have you in the galaxy."

"Angry, are you? Like Skywalker, yes. Anger runs high, both of you," Yoda agreed, before focusing on Luke. "Face Vader, you did."

"Yes," Luke agreed, his mouth tightening as he searched Yoda's exhausted eyes, "I did. And managed to rescue Leia and Chewie, at least. Han -- Han took longer, but we got him back, too. 

" _Without_ sacrificing 'what they fought for', thank you." 

Yoda could only sigh at that. "In motion, always, the future is. Last of the Jedi, you are. Our hope, you are."

Ahsoka felt a lump in her throat at the idea of all the Jedi dead. That just did not seem possible. None of this did. "Master, the Force evidently brought me here. I may not be a Jedi, but I still feel the need to help."

"Foolish, we were, Ahsoka, and proved us wrong, you did. Guide the Rebellion, you have," Yoda said. "Until, missing you were."

Luke blinked, looking between the two of them, confused and concerned. "You don't mean missing from... when she disappeared. Not if she's been part of the Rebellion. I -- think I'm very confused." 

If Yoda remembered her from after this point in her life, then what in the names of the galaxy was going on? 

But at least her being part of the Rebellion meant she was trustworthy. 

Ahsoka was stunned. Whatever had gone wrong, she'd been fighting against it? But how, if she vanished from Coruscant? What did the Force want?

Yoda gave a dry laugh, then coughed. "Confusing, it is. Send Ahsoka back, we must, to become Fulcrum, she will. But sending back, yes, then Ahsoka has knowledge, can change all! And make better, perhaps. Or worse, if unwise. Wisdom, though, a trait known to be Ahsoka's."

Ahsoka stared at him. "You know, given my most recent memory is of you throwing me out of the Order to face a death sentence, I think I am very, very weirded out right now."

Luke rubbed at his forehead, fingers pressing into his temple for a moment before he looked at them both again. "Master Yoda told me that the Order had failed the Jedi, Ahsoka, even before the -- " 

He found his words wouldn't come. How could he say 'before the fall of the Republic' to this girl that had never known the Empire? Never known what they'd done to the galaxy? 

Ahsoka sat back on her butt, on the floor, then took a deep breath. "I can see it. When Barriss…" and it hurt to say the name, "went off on her rant when Skyguy brought her in, I knew she was partly right. Not just because of me, but other things, things I had seen and heard. And not just for my Master!" she said fiercely.

Yoda's ears turned down. "Failed, failed in many ways." He looked at Luke. "Help Ahsoka find her way, you must." He then looked at Ahsoka. "Learn what happened, you must. Then back, you must go. Either to become Fulcrum… or as the Force and your heart choose, Padawan Tano."

She started to snap at him… then stopped. Could she change the Order better from within? Without a bribe to be a Knight?

"I'll help her in any way I can," Luke agreed, dropping his head a little, still so confused by the currents between them, by her faith and love for his father... "But how can we get her back to her time when we don't even know how she got here? And I know so little, Master, you've barely started training me! 

"We need you." 

Yoda coughed again, then shook his head slowly. "Guide you, the Force will." He looked pointedly at Ahsoka. "Hidden assets, have them, you do."

"Me? I'm just the loose-cannon, hot-tempered, rebellious, half-trained padawan," she scoffed. "Master, please let me help you stay!"

"Time, it is," Yoda said firmly. "Listen to the Force, you both will!"

"Don't leave us, Master," Luke pleaded, shaking his head. "Not without -- Master Yoda, did he tell me the truth? Is he -- " 

He didn't want to ask it in front of her, but she wasn't going to leave, and if he didn't say all of it, hopefully he could tell her more gently. But he had to know. 

Yoda deflated against his pillow, and then started to try and get more comfortable. "Tired, I am." He closed his eyes, trying to find the right answer, trying to find… and then the Force could not be denied any longer.

Ahsoka yelped as the place that Yoda had been was suddenly vacant, and the faint signature was swept away into the Force's full presence.

Luke bit back a snarl, suddenly angry all over again -- but then his mind engaged properly and he realized he wasn't entirely out of options. He _had_ to know, and if Ben could talk to him again, it would be here. 

But why was she so startled? That was pretty much what had happened to Ben when Vader killed him, surely it was normal for the Jedi. 

Ahsoka had to get up and check the spot… much as Vader had tested the robes on the Death Star.

"He's just… gone," she said, awed and a little frightened by the idea. "No pyre…"

"Is that not normal?" Luke asked, blinking at her as that memory tossed about in his mind, watching her in confusion. "It's what happened when Ben died, too." 

"Ben?" She looked his way, trying to place a 'Ben' against her memories. "And no. I've attended several pyres for Jedi." Her lekku twitched and faded, remembering pyres for the Vod'e. Those stirred her worse than the Jedi ones. They'd had no choice!

She was upset again, badly upset, and Luke stretched his left hand out to her, offering it palm-up. She could take it or lean into it, or do nothing, but he was concerned for her. She was even more out of her depth than he'd been on Yavin in those first hectic hours. At least he'd known (vaguely) what he was getting into when he ran with Ben from the stormtroopers. She could have no idea. "Um, Obi-Wan, I guess his real name was. But I knew him -- or of him, anyway -- as Ben for far longer." 

And Force help him, but just as soon as he could get some distance from her, he was going to yell until Ben showed up if it took him the next six months. 

Her eyes saddened further, and she stood, briefly touching his hand in gratitude, to leave this place, to get outside again. "He was like a Master to me as well," she said by way of explanation. "Kenobi-and-Skywalker, The Team. And I know them… knew them, I guess, pretty well." She left him there, going to grieve near Artoo.

Luke folded the blankets up carefully and moved to douse the fire (not wanting to leave it burning unattended) and straighten what few things there were. Then he too left, turning to the side to look at her. "I'm going to go run. Don't worry, I won't go anywhere without you and Artoo." 

Hopefully, she would think he just wanted to run off the pain, not to go scream at (or for) a ghost. 

Artoo beeped at him; of course he wouldn't leave without him. Ahsoka, kneeling by the droid, her montrals on his side, raised a hand in acknowledgement but didn't really move much else. She was sick to her heart now, and she'd never been good at turning that loose to the Force.

Luke nodded once, reassured that Artoo was standing guard over the girl, and turned to run. He ran for a while, the way Yoda had taught him, letting the Force flow through him and make it easy to go from ground to vine to trunk to ground, until he was sure he was far enough away not to be heard, and then he lifted his voice. "BEN!" 

It did not take long for him to feel the presence join him. "Luke."

He turned, staring at the old man all blue-edged and mostly-transparent, and anger surged through him again. "Why did you lie to me, Ben?" 

He hadn't answered on Cloud City, or when he'd been on Tatooine, but he was here now. " _Why_?" 

"I did not lie, Luke. I told you the truth as I perceived it." Obi-Wan held a hand up, forestalling the outburst. "When I lost your father, it was to Darth Vader. Because the man I knew as Anakin Skywalker was gone. There was no trace of him in the last time I faced him, before I went into exile."

Luke had bared his teeth despite the upraised hand, but he forced himself to listen. At the end of it, he snorted, angry and only half believing. "You... think of them as different people, then? Or something? 

"How could you let _him_ be the one to tell me?" 

The ghost's eyes closed in obvious pain. "How could I ever see that creature as the boy I had loved and raised and taught?" he countered Luke's anger. "I would have given anything to keep Anakin safe. When he fell, when he pledged to the Sith, he was remade.

"That he told you… I am surprised." Obi-Wan shook his head as he looked back to Luke's face. "I did not wish you to bear the weight of Vader's sins on the man your father was."

Luke studied his face, taking slow breaths as he watched the old man's ghost-face, considering and weighing that. "You would have let me kill my own father without ever knowing it," he said slowly, "but... only because to you he was already dead. 

"All right. I think I can understand that. Were you -- have you been watching? Do you know who else is here?" 

Obi-Wan frowned. "I was not. Master Yoda requested I not… be here." He said it with a heavy heart. "Who has come with you, Luke?"

"Not with me," Luke answered, shaking his head, "she... appeared. I think just before I landed, from the state she was in. She's just a girl, younger than me. Orange skin, white markings, white and blue lekku except there are three o --" 

"Ahsoka?!" Obi-Wan's voice was raised and shocked. "Ahsoka Tano?! Here? A girl? HOW?!"

Well, that was certainly another layer of confirmation, Luke thought, even as he blinked in surprise at that raised voice. Ben didn't yell. "I don't know. She doesn't either. She said something about finding an artifact on Coruscant and then she was here. Artoo -- and we're going to have _words_ about him, Ben! -- says it's been twenty-four years since she... left the Order? Was forced out?" 

Obi-Wan sat on a tree that was bent over, in shock, blurring around the edges. "Ahsoka Tano was our… your father's, really, padawan. And if she is from that moment… Force save us all, Luke, but she could stop it all! Anakin loved her, and losing her at his side was possibly the first blow to chip away his anchor to the Order."

"Then you have to come talk to her," Luke replied, wanting to move over and offer Ben a shoulder, his hand, something. He didn't dare, not knowing if Ben could return the contact or not, but he wanted to. The idea that his father had loved Ahsoka, had returned the love he could hear in her voice about him -- that stunned him, almost as much as hearing Ben's grief and pain now that he knew the truth had. He didn't understand all of what Ben meant, but if she could change things, make them better... 

...keep his father from becoming that dark, nightmare monster -- then he had to do everything in any of their power to help her. "Help me explain. Tell her the things I don't know." 

Obi-Wan nodded. "There is much I never learned, but yes. If we can somehow return her to that time, to that day we lost her… the Republic, the Order, the men… they all might be saved." He eyed Luke with hope, the same hope that had been in his face on Tatooine, when he'd first asked the boy to come with him. "Artoo may know pieces I do not, if your words earlier mean that he has his memories even still."

"He's very upset with you for not unlocking him," Luke told him, amazed at seeing hope in his face now, but... he knew there was precious little he would not do to stop the Empire. How much more must Ben feel that, Ben who had been a real Jedi Knight of the Republic? "She gave him some kind of a code. And he said I was... his pilot's son." 

Obi-Wan gave a soft snort. "His pilot, indeed. Your mother asked him to have the care of Artoo, I believe, a gift to the Jedi that risked everything for her and the Republic. And somehow, the droid he had built was given to her, as a protocol droid had little place in a war." His voice was soft with memories. "It is true that I had locked Artoo's memories, but I felt certain Bail would have wiped them both at some point. Threepio must have been, for that droid loves to tell stories."

"Bail... Leia's father," Luke said, placing the name he had heard only rarely after a second, and then he **stared** at Ben. "The droid he _what_?!" 

Obi-Wan rose. "The one he built. Threepio. Come, though. If I must speak with Ahsoka, we should do so soon, before the Force insists I rest within it again."

Luke nodded and turned to run. Ben could probably find her more quickly than he could, but he had to get there too. As he ran, the idea that his father had built Threepio rattled around in his mind trying to find a place to land... and failing. 

It didn't take long to get back, and he slowed to a loud jog as he neared the hut again, looking for her. "Ahsoka?" he called, soft. 

Ahsoka rose from where she had been saying her litany, having added Yoda's name to it, and Obi-Wan's, and her Master's, to face Luke. "Are we leaving?" she asked.

"No, Little 'Soka, not yet," Obi-Wan said as he shimmered into view. She whirled to see what looked like a holo-comm transmission, except she could see the Force all around him.

"Master Kenobi?" she asked, confused yet again. "You look… old."

Luke blinked at her back. Ben looked like he always had... didn't he? He moved to find a spot to sit, near her and near Artoo. The astromech looked from Snips to his pilot and made a confused noise, as he could only see flickers of energy. 

Luke shrugged slightly, "Force things, I guess? You can't see or hear Ben?" 

[Blur, faint sound...] 

Obi-Wan smiled gently at her, coming as close as he could without her Force signature making it harder for him to remain. "Living on Tatooine, under its suns, and all we experienced after the Order betrayed you, Ahsoka, aged me." He gave her a very sad look then. "I do not understand how the Force has brought you here, and given when Luke said you came from, you probably have a great deal of anger with me, but are you willing to save your men, to save Anakin, and save the Republic in the doing?"

"Of course I am, Master. I don't think I was ever angry at you; you voted against it! Even if it was Skyguy who had to save me, you tried to stop it. More than others that I truly trusted did!" she told him.

Luke nodded at Artoo as he listened to Ben and Ahsoka talking, listened to the order he put his questions in (the men, his father, and the Republic), and kept quiet. Right now, all he could do was add confusion to the confusion he already had, which wouldn't be at all helpful. 

His father had saved her from some kind of death sentence. Not a death mark, but something nearly as bad, something the Order had... abandoned her to, somehow? 

Yoda had said, again, that the Order had failed, specifically that they had been foolish and failed her... 

"I thought you would, Ahsoka. You have always been strong," Obi-Wan said. "The key information you need is that the Chancellor is the Sith."

Ahsoka had been through far too much in too short a time, and the color dropped out of her lekku again, before she fell on her butt, not even caring about the soggy ground. "But he… he… **SKYGUY!** "

Her shock and pain and fear communicated sharply, and Obi-Wan nodded sadly. "Indeed, Ahsoka. Indeed. Between what he did to Anakin, and the fact the Vod'e are… at risk, to some form of manipulation that will turn them on their Jedi, we were doomed."

"No! Rex? Cody…" On seeing Obi-Wan's face, she flinched. "Cody? On you?"

"Yes, and every other General, no matter how well loved by their men, fell in the same day."

"Artooey, what happened to my brothers? How did that Sith filth make them do it?" Ahsoka asked, knowing that they never would have betrayed their Jedi.

[Made droids. No choice. Processor in head. Fulcrum told Senator.] Artoo warbled it out sadly.

Luke had little idea what they were talking about, but he could see Ben's pain, Ahsoka's anger and fear and loathing, and kept quiet to listen and hopefully learn. 

Ahsoka made a snarling, primal noise at that. "Chips. That stripped them of who they were, made them little more than B1s?!" She had to breathe, had to reach for the unique rhythm that worked best for her, because her anger was threatening Obi-Wan's ability to remain visible.

"I knew Cody was no longer himself," Obi-Wan said sadly.

Luke moved over towards Ahsoka, reaching his left hand down towards her, quietly offering his support, such as it was. "That sounds _obscene_." 

She took the offered hand, nowhere near touch-shy, and held on gently, for all that she was angry and seething. She knew her grip was too strong, used to grabbing Skyguy's prosthetic, or a clone's gauntlet. 

"Kix. I start with Kix. I can operate a med-droid, and I can heal him enough that he can help me save the Vod'e." She was putting her plan into place.

"A good choice, Ahsoka. He was one of the best medics," Obi-Wan agreed. "How will you handle Anakin?"

Ahsoka drew a deep breath, and then raised her chin. "I'll kick his butt, if I have to. But don't worry; I'll get through to him somehow."

Luke made a worried noise at that -- he'd fought Vader, now, and seen Ben fall to him. This girl, small and slight though obviously strong... could she really think she could take Vader, even without the suit? 

"What else does she need to know, Ben? And do you have any ideas about getting her back home?" 

Ahsoka and Obi-Wan both turned at Luke's noise, then they shared a small smile. "It's okay, Luke. Skyguy's taught me a lot of tricks," Ahsoka said. "I wouldn't actually have to kick his butt too hard."

"If we get you back close to that day, Ahsoka, he will be in a very vulnerable emotional state, you realize?" Obi-Wan said. 

"Yeah, I figured. But I can get Padmé to help me if I have to. He can't be too far under that filth's influence yet, at that point, if he fought so hard for me," Ahsoka told him. "Of course, a couple of lightsabers would be useful…" she said, hinting to Obi-Wan to maybe help her find a couple.

"I've got parts," Luke offered, "since I just built this one, I brought spares. And Yoda's is small, but... I can't think he would mind, under the circumstances." 

'Wouldn't have to kick his butt too hard', Luke thought, incredulous, after dealing with the immediate concern. Ben seemed to think she would be all right, though, so he let it drop. "But why do you want two?" 

"Ahsoka is the best jar'kai user of her generation, and will likely surpass where I was." Obi-Wan's voice stated as a fact, and Ahsoka's lekku brightened to hear it. The ghost did look at Luke, though, to hear he had made a new one.

"I like two. And if I can use Master Yoda's as my shoto, that would be great," she said. "It's even the right color."

'Jar'kai', another thing Master Yoda hadn't had time to teach him. Apparently the ability to use two lightsabers at once, which was a thought that honestly frightened him. One was dangerous enough, two? How did anyone -- not important, not right now. He nodded to her, slowly released her hand, and headed back into the hut. He hadn't even thought of taking it, it was Master Yoda's and not sized for him at all, but.... she needed it. 

Artoo made another quiet warble and moved first towards Ahsoka, then changed his decision and rolled towards where the faint shape was and the sounds were coming from, assorted sensors popping out as he tried to analyze the phenomenon -- though that wasn't his only goal. 

Ahsoka watched Artoo, smirked, and then decided to go catch something small and scurrying while Luke was out of sight. She didn't need to upset him further with her carnivorous habits.

Obi-Wan watched the droid approach and himself be abandoned with trepidation. "Artoo?"

Artoo heard the very faint sound of his name and chirped his agreement, analyzing disturbances in the air and the shimmering blur with his passive sensors, finding it to be partially electromagnetic -- and he promptly popped the electrical prod and jabbed it at the heaviest concentration he could reach. He was _not happy_ with General Kenobi and had not been, and now he could make that displeasure known without running counter to the locks. [Should. have. unlocked. me! Could. have. helped!] 

The Jedi had to think hard through that, and then he knelt more to the level of the indignant droid. "I had no idea you would still have those memories, Artoo," he said, even as he smiled for the feisty attack and verbal tirade. "I should have realized Anakin protected you better than that."

Artoo had to listen very intently, with his audios turned up to levels that also heard the bugs entirely too clearly, but he did hear, and he rocked intently on his legs, sparking the prod one more time before he folded it away. [Yes. Should have! ...Threepio not, though. He was free, didn't need it the way I did...] 

Luke emerged from the hut again and went still, blinking at the obvious discussion between Ben and Artoo. How the droid could perceive Ben was something he just wasn't going to ask about, he decided. But where was Ahsoka? 

"I am sorry, Artoo, but to protect the babies, it was needed," Obi-Wan promised the droid. "Protect them now, my friend."

[Have been,] Artoo retorted, sharpening his optic and flashing his other lights indignantly. 

"Bab _ies_ , Ben?" Luke asked as he moved closer, his eyes narrowing. 

Obi-Wan took a deep breath again. Why, as a ghost, he felt that need… human habits. "Yes, Luke. You have a twin, that I was not directly involved with the care of," he admitted.

"I -- I what?" Luke stared at him, at Artoo, shaking his head. "I have a twin? A brother or a sister?" 

[Sister!] Artoo answered, delighted to be able to finally tell. 

Obi-Wan shook his head. "Be careful, Luke, before you seek her out. Ahsoka's mission could possibly fail. She will still need to be protected and as anonymous as possible to guard her from Vader and the Emperor."

Artoo made a disgusted noise and rolled backwards from General Kenobi, then turned to go towards his pilot. 

Luke glared at Ben, frustrated all over again by the secrecy, even as he wondered just who his twin could be. Who -- 

\-- knowledge hit him, as sudden and certain as the awareness that Vader was telling him the truth, that they were bound by blood, and he swallowed hard. Once, twice, then looked at Ben again. "Leia. It's Leia." 

/Why does this one have to be so perceptive?/ "Yes, Luke. But the danger to her is even greater than to you. Your sister could remind Vader of the woman he lost, and that can go one of two dangerous ways. Either an obsessive need to possess her at his side, away from everything… or a hatred without end."

Luke swallowed hard, thinking of that, and nodded slowly. "...I think it already has," he said after a few moments. "She wouldn't break, on the Death Star. She said it made him angry...." 

That had been a bad night, in space before Hoth. He'd found her pale and still staring out at hyperspace, her skin almost cool to the touch when he'd moved to comfort her. 

"Then put your awareness of her deep within you. Ask Ahsoka to teach you how to shield from other Force Users. She is adept at that skill." Obi-Wan sighed. "I am losing my connection here, Luke. I must rest."

"I will," Luke agreed, nodding. He had to protect her, he _had_ to. And if Vader knew... no. He had to learn that, how to guard even his thoughts of her. "Rest well, Ben." 

"Until next time… or, Force willing, in another, different lifetime." Obi-Wan faded then, just as Ahsoka came out of the trees, wiping at her mouth.

Luke held the lightsaber out towards her, as Artoo came trundling over to push under his free hand. 

She accepted it, closing her eyes as she felt for the crystal. /Forgive me, Master, and may I never have to use it in a way that would hurt you to see./ "Thank you." She adjusted her kama belt, and managed to attach it. "So… I need quiet. To figure out the next step. Can we rig for double in your ship? Or do we need to call for a ride?"

Luke glanced at the X-Wing, thinking, then looked at Artoo. "I think so, but what do you think, buddy? Can we clear out enough room for her?" He was pretty certain that they could, but it wasn't going to be fun for anyone. 

Artoo analyzed the ship's layout for a few seconds, then whistled affirmatively, popping up the schematic in holo to show them how to accomplish it. 

Ahsoka looked it over, grasping the schematic pretty quickly. "Sweet ride… is that an on-board hyperdrive? On a ship that size?" She whistled and started jogging that way, itching to get hands on and in her. "Skyguy would be all over himself about a ship like that!"

Artoo whistled affirmatively at that.

"Yeah," Luke agreed as he jogged along, "it sure is. And that's been a lifesaver for us in the Rebellion for way longer than I've been part of it. There's no way we would have survived if we had to use hyperdrive rings like the Aethersprites needed, let alone been able to run Imp 'security' cordons.

"She's actually the second one I've had, I had to destroy the first to keep her out of Vader's hands on Bespin. So Artoo and I are still getting used to a couple of her quirks." 

"Well, she looks great." Ahsoka ran an appreciative hand over the ship as they got there, then easily made the jump up behind the canopy. "Sleek lines. Master…" She cut herself off. She still wasn't ready to really miss her Finder. "Anyway, she's yours, so you tell me what I can do to help."

Artoo warbled about being on the ground, and she looked down at him. "Okay." She stretched out a hand and lifted him up into the astromech spot. "There you go, buddy."

"How did you -- " Luke stared up at her on the X-wing's spine, then remembered the jump he'd made to get out of the carbonite pit and tried it himself. He landed a little more roughly, but he hadn't needed the ladder, and that... that was worth a lot. "Sure. And yeah, she's gorgeous." 

He could talk ships all day or week, and it was something to keep their minds of what they were facing, too. He thought about Artoo's suggestions, then dove into the project. 

++++

Ahsoka could only stare at the fleet as Luke woke her. She followed him and kept quiet as he asked the crew to reassemble his ship. She ignored the stares. Those were unnerving; had they not seen a Togruta? 

Then they were walking into a full military briefing and she was torn between listening and noticing the Wookiee near a man who was saying that he needed a command crew. Was that Chewbacca? When he insisted he was going with the man, the voice was right and she was glad Luke was leading her there.

Luke reached to steady her, even as he was laughing internally at the idea of Han as a General. It came out in his voice as he called to him, joining the crew. 

He and Ahsoka had only heard part of the briefing, but where Han and Leia were was where he needed to be. And if the display at the center of the room really meant another Death Star, they _had_ to hit it now. As soon as possible. 

Ahsoka moved to be closer to Chewbacca and he stared at her in disbelief. "Chewbacca? Do you remember me?"

[Small! Yes. Fierce Youngling.] 

She smiled; from him, she would take that. "Force things, as Artooey says." She stepped into his space and he hugged her tight.

Han was distracted by Luke at the moment but Mon Mothma saw the small fighter and could not help but stare. Ahsoka felt the attention and pulled free to look. She recognized the stately woman and smiled at her, nodding once. 

"I'll go with your team, General," she said when Luke was done hugging the man. "Ahsoka Tano."

Luke opened his mouth but Han's eyes were already bulging out in shock. "The Commander Tano of the GAR?" Han asked.

"Yes," she answered, shrugging a little. "The Force put me in Luke's way. Least I can do is fight alongside a Skywalker."

"Our chances just went up," Han said to that. "Wow."

"You're taking this well," Luke said, blinking at Han in surprise. "And Ahsoka... you and Chewie know each other?" 

"Chewbacca," and Ahsoka accidentally stressed the whole name, because of issues, "saved me and others," overlapped Chewbacca's [Helped her save young ones on a Trandoshan moon.]

Han blinked, then narrowed his eyes at his partner. "One of these days, I'm going to get you to tell me everything. One of these days." He then focused back on the briefing to see if they were done.

Luke wondered at the tone of her voice, but he nodded understanding at her and at Chewie, then glanced back towards Mon Mothma and Admiral Ackbar, much as Han had. Admiral Ackbar blinked his large eyes once, his facial tendrils twitching slightly, but went on with the discussion, finishing with "May the Force be with us." 

Leia had kept out of the sudden sidetrack, but once they had started to break up into their groups, she moved towards Luke. "I'd started to worry about you," she told him, "and here you came back with more help." 

"I didn't expect it or go looking for it," Luke said, fighting to not tell her, not right now. "But apparently the Force has ideas on how to help."

"By turning up someone that can make our resident scoundrel turn starry-eyed, I note," Leia said, her mouth quirking in a wry smile as she wrapped an arm around him. There was something in his eyes, something.. "Are you alright?" 

Luke stopped and thought about that question, then shook his head. "Not really. But it's nothing to talk about now. Maybe later." He got his arm around her as well, so they could go stage their part of the mission.

"Okay," she told him, though she was more than a little worried. 

While they had been talking, Ahsoka had gotten another hug from Chewbacca, leaning into it, then headed for Mon Mothma to say hello before they headed in the directions they needed to. 

Mon saw the memory walking up to her and could not believe her eyes. Had someone cloned the child-warrior? But no, there were memories in the set of the lekku.

"I must ask how, because I find myself incapable of distrusting the way you move and react to those you know," Mon Mothma said. "And yet… I knew you to an older age, Lady Tano," she said.

"So I've heard," Ahsoka agreed, shaking her head slightly as she looked up at Mon Mothma. "I -- I was on Coruscant, trying to figure out where to go without the Order, without my Master. I felt something in a shop, went inside and found... something. It looked a little like a holocron, but not really? I picked it up -- and landed on my knees in the hottest, dankest, loudest, most miserable swamp I've ever seen. I was trying to get myself together when the ship landed and he," she tipped her head back towards Luke, "climbed out." 

Mon Mothma gave a small smile in that direction before focusing on the young woman. "You… I am having difficulty comprehending the ramifications of you here, now. Because this," and she gestured to everything around them, "would never have been possible without your guidance, Ahsoka. Bail Organa, I, others may have carried on Padmé Amidala's work, but it would have failed without your ability to guide us."

" _My_ guidance?" Ahsoka stared at her, her lekku flicking in shock as she shook her head. "I can't imagine that, you're -- I mean, you're the Senator, I'm just an ex-Padawan. According to what Master Yoda said before he joined the Force, I may have the ability to get back to when I'm supposed to be and _stop this_. 

"But first, I'm going to help here and now, because it sounds like you need me. I spent the trip back in trance, so I don't know much yet -- which doesn't mean I can't tell what the right thing to do is." 

"Then we will talk when you return to us, Lady Tano." Mon Mothma reached out to take her hands and squeeze. "And remember. Most of those who supported Amidala knew very little of warfare, or how to manage different allies on different worlds… traits you, as Fulcrum, brought to the table."

Time travel… well, the Force was not to be understood by non-users, Mon decided. She just couldn't see how Fulcrum had existed, if Ahsoka at this age was here.

Ahsoka blinked, shaking her head slightly, but she squeezed Mon Mothma's hands in return. She had to admit that that last was true. Senator Amidala's faction had been peaceful people, diplomats, not tacticians or warriors. "Yes we will," she agreed. "Take care, my friend. I'll see you again." 

"May the Force be with you, Ahsoka Tano," the stately woman said warmly.

++++

Luke had gotten Ahsoka the small assortment of parts for building a lightsaber, and offered to help her find anything else she needed. They had only a short while to prep for the mission, and she mostly just wanted to stay out of the way until they were en route, but she also wanted to get a feel for the people she would be fighting with. She stayed near the shuttle they would be using, just out of the way, and listened to the Force.

Rex had a munitions crate on his shoulder and was absently missing his armor as he headed for the shuttle. He hadn't been paying any more attention to his surroundings than his standard, which was how he got halfway to the shuttle before he saw the small form sitting and working. He froze in place, convinced for a moment that his mind was slipping, causing his memories to suddenly appear in physical form. 

Ahsoka had long ago marched far away from him, gone with his brothers and his General to the places he could not follow while there was still his duty -- and even if she hadn't, she wouldn't look like that. Wouldn't be so plainly the girl he had never noticed had stolen his heart until she wasn't there and neither was it. He blinked, freed a hand to scrub at his eyes... and she was still there. 

While the need to focus on the pieces of the lightsaber was there, she could not escape the wisp of a touch along her senses that felt both familiar and changed in one. Looking up, Ahsoka's eyes scanned the people working… and came to rest on a bearded man with a bald head, old for a human. She focused fully, and the wisp changed to a full on song, because the presence was very much one she knew.

"Rexter?" she asked incredulously, putting her tools and parts down to go closer.

No one knew as well as a brother that cloning didn't re-create personality, couldn't make behaviors and memories and temperament settle into place, and Rex swallowed hard, still staring. Every shift of her weight, the way she balanced and held herself, the sway of the kama around her hips and the expressive set of her lekku were things he knew, knew bone-deep (deeper) and had known he could never see again. 

That was his Commander. That was impossible. That was his Commander. 

It felt as if Ventress had him by the throat again, but had added a punch straight past his ribs to his heart. Against his sternum, the akul-tooth on her headdress burned against his skin. "C-commander?" 

She was flying then, slamming into him low, so as to not upset his crate, but her arms wrapped around him with the same enthusiasm he remembered from so long ago, undimmed by the endless tragedy they had lived through. "Rex, Force, but it's you!" she said, holding on for dear life.

Everything may have died and been burned on a pyre in this time, but if Rex had made it… she could truly have hope.

So _bright_. So open, so intent -- and she was so _small_. Shorter than he was, again, which was wrong, but.... His free arm wrapped down around her before he knew he was going to, and he couldn't manage to speak. 

What. How. How was. 

Did it matter? He wanted the crate off his shoulder, wanted to be able to hold her, but he couldn't let go of her to accomplish it. 

She looked up to his face, and saw so much confusion… and he had another arm, dammit. With a firm wrap of Force around his crate, she floated it away and down.

"It's the Force, and I have to find a way back, to stop all the awful, but right now I'm here, and I'm going to help, and REX!" she babbled, knew it for babbling, but … she hadn't been able to say goodbye properly yesterday, and now he was here in this nightmare.

"Shh," he murmured, wrapping his freed arm hard around her too, holding her in against his chest as the high pitch of her voice stirred old memories, old agony, and the way she said his name... 

Had she known even then? Even this young? 

He'd never asked, never let himself consider it. "Ahsoka," he finally managed words again, or at least, the only important one. For this moment, for right now, the Force that had taken her had given her back again. "Oh, Ahsoka." 

She didn't care they were getting side-eyed from others. She straightened to stand as tall against him as she could, and got her head on his shoulder, breathing in the scent that had changed, but held a hint of the familiar for her. The way he said her name… and what was that under his shirt? She reached, fingers tracing the edges that she could see, faintly, to track the shape of a tooth.

"Is that…" she asked, looking back up into his eyes (so old, so worn, and she ached for him).

He nodded, holding her tight in against his shoulder, his eyes locked on her bright blue ones. So bright. Intense, hardened... but not clouded and narrowed with the grief and pain of his wife's. "Yours," he agreed, very quiet. It felt wrong to have his arms around her and not feel her central lekku against his wrists. He didn't think he could possibly let go. 

"So… I did get to see you again." She swallowed hard. "I wanted to say goodbye, but I knew if I didn't go, right then, Skyguy… he'd've tried to talk me back." She took a deep breath, pushing that away, focusing on him. "You're alive. After all Luke told me, everything I found out already, there's one bright spot for me. You."

Rex blinked, then saw the lack of the beads and knew _when_ she was from. Pain and fury for her slammed through him, and he held her hard against his chest. He had to nod, to agree, at that the General would have tried to convince her. And he'd long known that was what she believed, she'd sobbed it out against his chest in the night more than once, waking from nightmares. "He would have. And that would've been your death." 

He couldn't think about that 'one bright spot for me' too much, not right now. 

She just breathed, holding on, resting there against him. It took her a very long few minutes to get herself balanced, but then she did raise her head. "No armor. Doesn't feel the same to rest on you without the armor."

Her lekku twitched, though, with that brightening of color, because she was remembering without-armor-Rex of her time, and the illicit responses that caused her, seeing him in his blacks.

"Are you joining the same party Chewbacca and Luke are in?" she asked, to get her head away from those thoughts.

He was long used to reading her lekku, though years out of practice, and he tried not to smile at the look on her face, in her eyes. She was the girl she hadn't been for him in decades, and he... he was an old man, now. Old and tired, but not toothless yet. 

"If you mean the trip to blow the shield generator, yes," Rex said, before he blinked at her once. "Chewbacca? That's really -- I thought it might be, but I've never been that good at recognizing Wookies. And you said 'Luke'. The kid... is he really... our General's son?" 

She nodded solemnly. "Yep. Artooey's probably got a lot more to tell me, and I plan to talk to Mon Mothma, and Obi-Wan's ghost did some talking, and Master Yoda before he died… but you might have even more to help me than any of them but Artooey," she told him. "Because like kriffin' hell, I'm going to let a single thing happen to our brothers!" she hissed. "Or to Skyguy, even if I have to get the Senator to help me knock sense in his head!"

"Force, but I love you -- " Kriff, he had _not_ meant to say that! 

Ghosts talking? Well, that was the Force for you, wasn't it? Everything stranger than the next? 

She blinked in startlement. Rex? Loved her? Like… like she'd been hoping? 

" _Elek_?" she questioned, her surprise and joy mixing to make her lekku very active.

Had she and Rex been mates? Was that why he wore the tooth? 

He felt more than saw the shifting in her lekku, his eyes watching hers and her face. She looked, felt, so overjoyed (along with her surprise), and he couldn't even try to lie. He nodded slowly, corner of his mouth quirking up a little, without his intent. " _Elek, cyar'ika_. Don't let me keep lying to myself about it, either, when you get back home." 

"Hoped for this." She cuddled in against him a long moment. " _Cyar'e_." She then kissed his cheek, not wanting a scandal for him. "Let's get your work done."

Rex nodded, his arm wrapped around her for another few moments, before he let go to get things moving. 

A little later, pointing out where the last of the crates needed to go, he realized he'd forgotten how much faster things went with a _jetii_ around. What would have taken him another hour was almost done, and he and Ahsoka were carrying on a rapid conversation about the sources for the mission and the objective as she floated things along. 

Luke was crossing the bay with his own gear and had to stop, noticing the mass in the air, and Ahsoka talking animatedly with one of Dameron's men. She barely had a hand up and yet nothing was wobbling.

[Snips good.] Artoo bumped his leg.

"Yeah," Luke had to agree, "she really is. Pretty amazing." 

He could move things, but... not like that. Not with that kind of grace or that much weight. Let alone while carrying on a conversation. He shook his head slightly and started back towards the shuttle. He was curious, intensely curious, about who the man was, but he supposed there would be time enough to talk once they were on the way. 

It didn't take much longer and things were ready. Ahsoka wasn't moving from Rex's side even as she worked on the lightsaber. 

"Tell me what I can expect in the fight?" she invited Rex as her fingers worked.

Rex hummed to himself for a moment. "Depends on how heavily they've fortified the base," he answered. "Imp tactics haven't changed that much from ours, barring that the flesh-born have shit for accuracy." 

His eyes flicked, found Artoo's impossible, familiar and welcome dome. He didn't know the young man, but Ahsoka had waved to him and a lightsaber hung at his waist. Their General's son, somehow, with Artoo at his side. Ahsoka had said Artoo had his memories, knew everything from the war and most of the Rebellion. He lifted his voice a little. "Artoo, come help me brief the Commander?"

Artoo beeped warily. He came over, scanning the man's facial structure. He then got between Luke and Rex, worried and letting them know it.

"Artooey, it's fine!" Ahsoka protested. "Rex would never hurt Skyguy's son."

"Don't, Ahsoka. He has plenty of reason to worry," Rex told her, squeezing her shoulder for a moment before he looked at Artoo and turned his head to the side, reaching up to point out the thin line of the surgical scar. "Remember when I went on leave, Artoo? It was because I believed Fives, and went to get it taken out. No chip still in me.

"I had the proof... I just -- I didn't get home in time. It took a while before I found my way to some of the others, then into the Rebellion. But she's right. Our General's son is safe with me."

Luke, who'd followed Artoo, had to sit down again as he heard the grief and love and pain in the man's voice. 'No chip in me' -- the man was one of the clones the Clone Wars were named for? Had been... had been one of his father's men? 

"See?" Ahsoka asked before Artoo beeped affirmatively. He then called up schematics of likely Imperial armored vehicles. Ahsoka looked from those to Luke, smiling a little. "Luke, this is Rex. He led your father's legion. And taught me how to be a commander."

Artoo dropped the schematics long enough to display a holo of Rex, _buy'ce_ under arm, with an even younger Ahsoka and a tall man with a lightsaber.

"That's not long after Christophsis," Ahsoka said.

Luke looked at the young man standing there in -- painted? -- armor, a helmet more like Boba Fett's than a stormtrooper's under an arm, blond hair and dark eyes (the eyes matched the man next to Ahsoka) for only a moment before he was overwhelmed by the sight of the _other_ man. The one with the lightsaber and a slashing scar over his right eye. A mass of dark hair curled back from his forehead, his jaw was set in a hard line... "That -- that's really -- my father?" 

He looked so young. Younger than he was, or at least not much older than...?

"Yeah." Ahsoka's smile was warm while Rex looked pained. "He's twenty and some months there," she said, picking up some of Luke's thoughts on the image. "We're five and a half years apart. And we're both older than Rex."

"Only by batch years," Rex said.

"I'm sorry... 'batch years'?" Luke asked, looking back and forth between them and the hologram. Only five and a half years apart, and his father had been her teacher? 

That seemed... unwise. But then again, what did he know, really? 

Artoo made an amused noise, but it wasn't something Luke could translate.

"We aged two years for one. So I am only eleven to the Commander's fourteen, there," Rex explained.

Ahsoka looked at him. "It didn't stop, did it?"

Rex snorted. "It did when you decided you wanted it to."

Ahsoka stared at him, baffled. "When _what_?" 

Luke was really rather pleased that he hadn't had to be the one to ask, and that she looked as surprised as he felt. 

Rex's mouth quirked. "You'd gotten good at some very advanced healing. When we found each other again, you looked at how much I'd aged and decided to do something about it. Scared the wits out of me doing it, too, since you passed out after and stayed out a while." 

"Well good." Ahsoka looked surprised still but she needed Rex. Him not aging was good.

Artoo beeped at them and switched back to schematics. It made Ahsoka laugh but she focused. "Why long legs? The belly would be vulnerable and the legs look flimsy compared to our AT-TEs."

"Faster though. You'll want to go for the cabin join or take the barrels if you go high," Rex offered. "Betting your sabers can cut the knee on the small ones though."

"They do cover a lot of ground quickly. If you can get to it, there's thin metal and grating on the underbelly of the AT-ATs -- the big ones;" Luke offered, "and a charge tossed up into it does nicely to deal with them. I've not had a chance to see if there's the same opening on the short ones."

"I'll find out if I see one," she told them.

"You will, Commander." Rex smiled proudly.

"Technically not one any more," Ahsoka reminded.

"True. You led a campaign on Mandalore as General," he answered just to make her fall over in shock.

A campaign on Mandalore? Luke blinked, then looked at Ahsoka's shock -- at least she was as surprised as he was. Artoo, beside them, chirped a firm agreement at Ahsoka, rocking in a small nod. 

"Our brothers?" she questioned with the inflection of their company.

"Wearing your colors, marks, and with me at your side," Rex assured her.

"Oh well, we were fine then," she said, but the idea still staggered her. "Let's stick with Commander." 

"Yes, Commander," Rex said with a flash of a smile, and Artoo made an amused noise. 

Luke found himself smiling too. They had a rapport that looked well-worn despite the oddity.

Ahsoka finally snapped the last piece into the saber and flipped up to her feet, in an open spot. She flashed it on, breaking into a huge smile when the crystal obeyed with a brilliant white blade. 

"Not my usual yellow," she said, testing it in a controlled spin to her reverse grip.

"Fulcrum's were white," Rex told her, looking at the shine with an ache deep in his chest. It'd been so long since he'd seen a lightsaber activated at all, let alone her white ones. "Not sure why yours would have changed this early, though..." 

"Maybe it's something to do with whatever Master Yoda thinks is hidden inside me." She shut it off, then settled it on the other hook of her belt. She then flopped back down, head on Rex's thigh, legs curled under her, looking for all the world like this was her natural state of being. From how Rex's hand came to rest on the montrals, Luke supposed it was.

"Sleep? Or story-telling?" Ahsoka asked Luke.

"Definitely stories. Please," Luke answered, his gaze flicking between the three people that had obviously known his father best. 

Artoo whistled a little, and then innocently began playing his recording of the first meeting of Anakin and padawan, complete with audio. It made for a good start, and had both Ahsoka and Rex smiling, to see how … young they all had been, even in the midst of a nasty war.

"...so that's how the nicknames came about?" Luke asked as Artoo ended the recording, shaking his head a little, trying not to be rattled by hearing his father's voice for the first time. Vader's mechanical near-monotone was so different that it was almost impossible to believe they could be the same being at all... "Why was he saying there'd been a mistake?" 

"He didn't want a padawan," Ahsoka said.

"He had sense," Rex added, getting an eyeroll.

"So Master Kenobi kind of tricked him, and Master Yoda helped, and he got me." She sighed softly. "He'd been a Knight maybe six months, a General for most of that, and Master Yoda thought it was time to push him a little.

"There might also have been a few incidents in the Temple that had him and Master Windu really, really eager to get me to a master," Ahsoka admitted. "Still not sure how he could be …. no, not getting into that. Talking about Skyguy."

Rex looked at Luke. "General Kenobi had stated he was going to take one on. And then she pulled the card of General Yoda assigning her to my General. Bad enough I'd gotten Skywalker, but now a youngling too?" His eyes showed he was teasing even as he said it.

"Rexter, there wasn't a single other Commander or Captain who ever could have kept up with Skyguy like you did," Ahsoka promised him.

Luke found the two of them incredibly entertaining, though the idea of him being half tricked into taking on a student, and by Yoda and Ben at that was a little hard to believe. He cocked his head at Ahsoka at the end of that comment, making a curious noise. He wanted to know anything they would tell him about Anakin Skywalker, to have that to hold against the knowledge of what Vader had done. 

Rex flushed a little. "It was all about understanding he was going to do things his way… and he respected me for deploying the men to support his style of leading."

"And you were right there, leading from the front as often as we did, which made him respect you even more." Ahsoka nodded once. "And well, Skyguy loved the Vod'e, hated seeing the losses. He could trust Rex to be careful with them, no matter how…. hmm, the word I need…."

"Reckless? Mad? Driven?" Rex offered.

"Yep, all that, no matter how _focused_ Skyguy got in beating back the enemy to win."

Luke nodded a little, listening to that, to the idea that his father had been the kind of leader he tried to be. Someone that was in the worst of the fighting, and did what he could to bring his men home alive. With, apparently, something of a driven, independent streak... "I know almost nothing about the Clone Wars," he admitted softly. "Not even what started them, really. I know they led to the birth of the Empire, but other than that..." 

Rex's eyes got hard, and then he had to shift a little, so his hand lay flat on Ahsoka's skin, not her montrals where he might accidentally tap in agitation. "All a bunch of kriffing political games to get power in the hands of that _aruetyc_ piece of bantha shit from the pieces put together by Fulcrum and a few others.

"Two sith, one in the Republic, one in the Separatists… the systems that started breaking from the Republic about the time I was batched… stoking the war fever on both sides, maneuvering power into the Chancellor's lap, so he could go and…. and…. break it all!"

The passion in Rex's voice had Artoo crooning knowingly, and Ahsoka actually shifted up and into his full space, so she could hold him. She looked at Luke sadly.

"The Vod'e were sworn to the Republic, Luke… at a basic, very intense level. Mandalorian culture, but with the Republic at the center of the tenets," she said. "To find out just the little I have… it's a spiritual betrayal as severe as the physical and mental one that making them turn on their Jedi would have been."

Luke listened intently -- he'd heard Leia bewail how much history from the end of the Republic had been destroyed or altered enough times to know how important this was, and to hear it directly from people who had seen it.. -- until he nodded at the last things she told him. "I've heard some about Mandalorian culture, and that -- with what Artoo said earlier... I'm sorry, Rex. That any of you had to go through that." 

"I survived. I still live." Rex tipped his chin up, fierce in his duty to preserve the memory. He did not, however, do anything to dissuade his love, even if she was small and young again, from curling fully into his lap, so that he could hold her and press his cheek against her montrals.

"It. Will. Not. Happen." Her quiet words burned with the same intensity that had ran through his General in nearly all things, and he stroked her back to calm her some.

"Get through this, and then we help you get back… and that's going to be interesting." Luke wondered what happened to the time that they had lived already, if everything just reset, but that would be for later.

"Probably."

+++++

As they neared the final approach, Ahsoka felt her mind reaching, trying to make a connection… and she threw herself into the lessons given to her by Master Kit Fisto, fighting to be unseen, unknown by the person that held the other end of that loop. She was up and off of Rex, going to the cockpit, so she could actually blanket Luke's presence with her own guarding one.

"We are not here, you do not see us," she whispered, fighting to keep Kit's skills on top of the potential security breach that just existing was right now.

"What?" Luke asked, before he felt... something, around him, and he tried to match himself to her, to be still and to not be seen or sensed. He turned to look at her, arching a brow, as Han and Chewie worked to slip the ship through. 

She pushed her hands against his shoulder to quiet him until the shuttle was cleared to land. She held vigilance until the itch to reach into her training bond died away, and then she sagged.

"Sorry, Luke. Shielding techniques that weren't actually typically taught to Jedi," she told him. "But when I felt the training bond reaching out, I knew I had to get to you and guard us both."

"It's... it's okay, but -- what just happened?" he asked, cocking his head at her. "I felt something, just for a moment, and then you were there..." 

"That would be _him_ ," she said in a low voice. "And even if he is a puppet on strings, my mind, my self in the Force, knew he was there… " and her eyes went wide, "because apparently he never broke the training bond. Which meant you were at risk for the family one." She kept her voice low, not knowing if he'd discussed his parentage with the others. "So I shielded us. It's a technique developed against Jedi, but a Master who helped teach me was nephew to the man that was the leader of those people in my time."

Luke nodded, after a few moments of considering that. The idea that the same thing that had told him Vader spoke the truth could have put Han and Chewie and Leia back in danger was nauseating... but Ahsoka had protected him from that. "Thank you, then. And... would you teach me some of that, if you can? Don't want him to go looking again -- you might not be there. 

"Han, Chewie, how we doing?" 

"Same as usual," Han quipped. Chewbacca gave an assent to that, before focusing on the landing pattern they needed in case they were tracked.

"We're doing better than that," Leia protested, making Ahsoka giggle a little.

"Sounds like the start of a typical mission," she said, before focusing back on Luke. "Yeah. Planning on teaching you what I do know, in case… well, just in case."

"Just in case," Luke agreed, before he reached out and squeezed Leia's shoulder lightly. 

Leia gave him a slight smile, then really looked at the stranger that had made Chewbacca vouch for her, that Artoo spoke highly of (and why did he seem so much more aware of the war effort suddenly), and that Mon Mothma had personally said to trust. She studied the orange skin, marked in white, and the small horns, and the lekku… and she really looked at the markings again, something triggering a memory.

Diamonds on either side of a pair of lines with angles in them.

"Fulcrum. Fulcrum's cell, they used that symbol," she said, eyes flicking to the forehead markings.

Ahsoka's lekku twitched with a touch of uneasy embarrassment. "Apparently that's who I grew up to be? Except I'm from several months before there's even a chance of it," she told Leia.

"I remember you… her?... meeting with my father. The marks, they're distinctive," Leia said. "And it was an early mark used by one of the stronger cells, and on correspondence to my father." She said the last a little wistfully, thinking of Alderaan and her family.

Luke shifted closer yet to Leia, wanting to comfort her, his fingers squeezing gently as he listened to her talk about the early Rebellion, about her father (did she even know she was adopted? That didn't make Bail Organa any less her father) with such quiet wistfulness. "This entire time travel thing is giving me a headache. You remember things that won't happen if the Force just lets us get Ahsoka back where she belongs..." 

"Or they might, if the theory of multiple universes, touching, is true," Ahsoka said. "It was in one of the philosophy classes I had to take, before I was apprenticed," she added at both their stares. 

"I think I need to hear more about the training of a young Jedi," Luke said, half smiling. "Just in case." His heart told him there would be no 'in case'. No matter what she did in the past, it would change things, for better or worse.

"Sure," she agreed, before they had to get secured to land. 

+++ 

Once under the radar floor -- bless this world for being so mountainous -- Solo had deviated well off a course to the base. They'd killed the transponder and comm equipment as they dropped... and nothing came up off the surface to hunt for them. 

Sloppy, Ahsoka couldn't help but think. Sloppy and overconfident and stupid, to just let a ship drop within the shield and then disappear. She and Rex and Skyguy wouldn't have been that stupid -- she hoped. 

...or were they being let to slip past? 

No, surely not. Nobody would take that chance. She turned the idea over in her head as she padded along behind Chewbacca, trying to listen ahead for presences. As Solo neared the top of a ridge, though, he lifted his hand in 'down' before she knew anyone was there. 

Why couldn't she feel anything?

What had the Empire done to its fighters?

Rex made certain the order was obeyed, not that he had any inclination to lead, but to be certain they weren't immediately going to be in a battle. He was staying on Ahsoka's six, watching her, and knew by the central headtail that she hadn't noticed anything. Could it be that the Imps were so conditioned as to be droids still? The thought hurt, even as he consoled himself that most of his brothers were likely long dead from fighting or age.

She slipped up the trail, down low to the ground, and slipped to the top of the ridgeline, staying below some brush to look down. Two figures in stark white armor were moving around, down at the bottom of the hill. She reached out, trying to read them, to understand why she hadn't known they were there... and horror welled up in her. There were no real personalities, only orders and duty and conformity. 

More like Geonosian drones, with their not-presence, than _people_. Anger flared hot in her, and she missed part of the discussion. 

Han was ready to take care of the scouts, him and Chewbacca, by the time her attention came back around. She noted the look shared between Luke and Leia, remembered having a look shared with Rex like that at something said or done between Skyguy and Obi-Wan.

It wasn't his fault the stick rolled under his foot, Han decided, even as he tried to quickly fix the situation. He really had thought he and Chewie could handle this quietly.

Well _kriff_ , Ahsoka thought and flung herself into motion, jumping the fallen trunk and throwing herself out and down. Solo was dealing with one, but she had to get between the other and that speeder-bike! 

Luke had started moving, Leia right beside him, but sweet _Force_ , what was Ahsoka doing?! 

Leia could only stare, shocked at how the small fighter moved, the sheer distance and speed used.

Rex, having been alert to 'Soka moving, slithered to a vantage, and just smiled to see her in action again. It was the same raw, exuberant skill that had served the 501st so well. It lacked the finesse of his mate's edge-honed skills, but was more than enough for Imps that had never faced a true _jetii_. 

Ahsoka was on the trooper before he was fully on the bike, and her lightsaber went through armor and flesh in one swift move, a jab straight through the mid-chest that dropped him. She felt the life dissipate, and her heart twisted for a moment. These were people, no matter what had been done to them, and it... 

There were more, out away from them, near one of the other trees, and it looked like that one blaster bolt had drawn their attention. 

The shift of montrals was all Rex needed to look in the right direction, and he brought his rifle up to take one of the pair. They were terribly fast, these scouts, and one made it on his bike before his shot hit the second under an arm, where the armor was weak, eliminating that threat.

"The other one!" Leia said, starting to run now, to deal with it, her eyes fixed on the speeder closest to her.

Luke yelled and barely managed to get a jump up behind her, his arm wrapping tight around her waist as he leaned forward, his mind racing over how to keep this from getting any worse. "Jam the commlink! Center switch!" 

He felt a burst of irritation from her, but was it his fault she didn't know speeders the way he did? 

Kriff it all, but was there a thing about _jetii_ and Senators? Rex didn't have a hope in _haran_ of shooting that other speeder in these woods.

Leia maneuvered the speeder as best she could. At least she and Luke together probably only weighed about the same as the trooper in his full armor, which meant she could coax her bike to catch up. The trees… it wasn't that different than some of the places she had vacationed and been allowed to be free on Alderaan, unfettered by expectations.

She only half-wished they'd jumped on in the opposite fashion, with Luke piloting. After all, she could actually use a blaster, if her hands had been free.

"Can you get up alongside him? Quick!" Luke yelled over the sound of the bike. If she could just get him close enough, he could jump over and knock the stormtrooper off. It was an agonizingly long chase, as if time slowed down to show him exactly how far they were getting from the others, and then a rough few moments of their speeders knocking against each other before he managed the jump and flung the trooper off. He impacted the tree with a sickening thud and Luke braked the speeder hard, pulling it back. 

Leia opted to loop hers around, coming back to him and slowing it that way. "You're a terrible backseat pilot," she told him, grinning under her helmet. "Come on; back to Han."

"I know, sorry." He flashed a smile at her, trying to be apologetic and amused at the same time, possibly without much success. "Yeah," he agreed, and turned the bike around to head back. Please, please let them not have been close enough to a third set to have been heard…

Leia and Luke arrived back together on their captured speeders just before Ahsoka had decided to go seeking them, while Rex had scavenged the weapons off the three Imps they had dealt with.

"Good hunting," Ahsoka said, nodding at the captured speeders.

Leia flashed a smile at her, "Yeah, maybe. But they make a lot of noise..." 

Luke shrugged one shoulder, just a little, looking over the gathered gear thoughtfully. "We left the jam on their comms open, but we'd probably be better off using it to eavesdrop. With any luck, we'll be able to send 'all clear's on the next check-in, yeah?" 

[Just don't let Han do it,] Chewbacca chimed in, making Han turn that wounded, hurt look his way, even as a little color rose in his cheeks. Ahsoka knew there had to be a story there.

"Good idea," Han finally managed to say, before checking where they were in relation to where they needed to be.

Luke laughed at Chewie's words, then flicked a glance at Rex. "You up for that job, Rex? Artoo, help me figure out how to get the comm sliced out of one of these." 

Ahsoka stretched out with the Force, feeling for the not-presence she'd now learned to find... and in addition to more of them, in a ring, she found -- 

\-- "This moon has a sentient race?" she asked, glancing among them. 

"It does?" Han asked, worrying. "Not really my neck of the woods," he said, slightly smirking for the surroundings they were in.

Artoo trundled over to help Luke, even as Rex gave his assent.

"Could be allies, could be enemies," Leia weighed. "Our briefings focused only on Imperial presence."

[Might be slaves,] Chewie pointed out.

Ahsoka trilled her anger at that possibility, one hand flexing around the hilt of a 'saber, shifting her weight before she tried to reach out again. "I can feel them, but not... clearly. None all that close to us, a couple of hours walk, at least. A few," she paused, searching the Force again, "towards the shield bunker. Guess we'll see if we can talk to them once we get closer. Threepio, you up for that?" 

"Yes, Lady Tano, I am quite fluent in over six millions forms of communication and will--"

"We get it, Goldenrod," Han said, cutting the droid off. "Let's get moving, people; that shield isn't taking itself down."

"I'll catch up," Luke agreed from where he was working on the bike, about halfway finished with getting the comm unit out. Powering it -- well, they had spare blaster packs now, and he'd gotten good at tapping those for other things a while back. "Toss me one of those spare packs you picked up before you go, Rex?" he asked before digging into his belt for the tools he was going to need for this part. 

Rex brought it over, looking at Ahsoka to see if she was staying with the General's kid or still escorting them. He knew better than to offer; a Jedi could move too fast for him to keep up.

"Don't take too long, Luke," Leia told him, voice warm and full of concern for letting him lag behind.

"I won't, Leia," Luke promised her, his hands still flicking over the bike. 

"We'll catch up, he means," Ahsoka said, looking at Solo with some concern and very glad that Rex would be with them for the little while she and Luke weren't. 

Rex handed over the pack, and then jogged to take a point just behind Solo, Leia, and Chewbacca. He would guard and guide… since his own secret had been busted and the Wookiee at least was well-aware of the experience on tap.

"You don't have to," Luke started, but Leia flashed a look back at him that told him to stop arguing. "Or you can."

+++++

Han didn't like the site of what was going to be their next, and possibly most important, battle. They were able to get in place and hide pretty well, before he surveyed the place as carefully as he could. He went through every drill he could recall from the Academy, added in all he had learned in the Rebellion, and came up with the idea that this looked woefully under-protected.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," he muttered.

"You're not the only one," Luke agreed quietly, shaking his head. "Something about this... isn't right." 

"They know a ship came through the shield and didn't present itself at the base, and it looks like this? No kriff something's wrong," Ahsoka agreed, shaking her head. 

"But how? The intelligence we had--" Leia began.

"Could have been leaked," Rex finished the Princess's statement, with a slight nod of apology for it. "Best way to bait a trap is make you pay dearly for it."

"But how do we spring it without getting caught? Because the Fleet is coming, no matter what," Han said.

"Not until tomorrow morning," Luke said, looking down at the base. "We've got the entire night to scout -- and one advantage they _can't_ know we have. Lady Tano. And there's something... this place feels..." 

"Special," Leia finished for him, making Han screw up his face in the displeasure of trying to figure those two out. 

"We move carefully around, scout for possible entrances not visible," Rex said, "and secure the place so we blow it at the right time. Knowing it's a trap is a big help on all that."

Luke nodded, his nerves settling a little once they had something in mind that wasn't just charging in there. 

+++ 

At the end of the first hour of their hunting, they regrouped, and after a little talking, knew that more than half of them had seen things that couldn't be coincidental. Piles of carefully-arranged tree trunks, caches of stones, one set of what looked like trunks tied high in the trees (for what purpose, Leia couldn't imagine), and many, many lengths of coiled, obviously local rope-of-some-kind hidden at the bases of trees...

"Locals?" Leia asked. "Planning something, I think. Looks like a possible home-grown variety of Rebellion."

"I think you're right, Leia," Han said, having pulled a flimsi out to mark the locations on as they were reported. "Guess they're going to get a hand."

"Pardon, General, but if we don't touch base with them somehow, it might all blow up in our faces," Rex pointed out.

Han frowned, but after a moment, he knew they were right. "Yeah, you're right. Okay, suggestions on how? I mean, whoever they are, they've set all this up right on top of an Imp base without being spotted..." 

Ahsoka chuckled softly and wriggled her fingers. "I think that's my cue." 

"You sure?" Luke asked, still concerned over the possibility of anything happening to her before they got her a way back.

Rex patiently waited for whatever way Ahsoka trimmed the boy back for being overprotective. 

Ahsoka shifted her weight to look at him, trying not to get too annoyed with him, reminding herself that he did have reason to worry, and smiled instead of baring her teeth. "I'll be fine, Luke. If they're planning an attack on the Empire, they're already halfway to allies. And I won't let anything happen to Threepio, either!" 

That was mild, but Rex could feel the firm will in the words, and saw Luke's face reflect that he'd gotten the message clearly.

"Alright then. Threepio… I need you to go with Ahsoka," he said, getting the protocol droid moving.

++++

Ahsoka found the natives to be people after her own heart. They were hunter-gatherers, still living in clans, fierce in their beliefs… and with a hatred for the Imps. They thought Threepio was a deity, but she was careful to mitigate that as she dealt with them. It wouldn't be good to abuse their notions.

But she came back close to dawn with a handful of them, and the trees rustling with the arrival of the rest of the clans that had come to take back their sacred lands.

"This is Chief Chirpa, Paploo, Teebo, and Wicket," she introduced her new friends to Han, Luke, and Leia. "They have been planning their attack for most of a month by their counting, and are pleased to count us as allies now." She then flicked a grin at Threepio, who was being adored by Teebo and Paploo. "They think Threepio is a god, and that's been fun to deal with."

"Like Goldenrod needs any further inflation of his sense of ego," Han said with a sigh. "So what do they know?"

"There's far more walkers, big and small, than we counted. And they have seen many shuttles land, spit out troops, and leave soon after, so the numbers are probably hiding in blinds and inside the bunker, to lure us in," Ahsoka said. "However…" She took their flimsi to make a new mark near the rear of the bunker. "There's a door on this side of the hill."

Luke was amused at the idea of Threepio as a deity -- possibly more amused at Han's opinion of that -- and grateful to the small hunters. "How did we miss that?" he asked, frowning more at himself than anyone else. They hadn't reckoned on 'many' shuttles full or troops, a battalion or a legion, when they put this plan together. He could deflect a lot of fire with his 'saber, but not that much. 

"More importantly... how do we draw them out?" Leia said, frowning herself as she thought. 

Threepio translated the comments so far… except the ones aimed at him, and Chief Chirpa spoke back.

"His highness wishes for our forces to move to the hidden door, and they will proceed with their assault as planned. If part of our troops were to aid them, it should bring out the same-faces -- I believe he means the Imperial Stormtroopers -- and leave less for the strike force to contend with."

"Little fellows have a good grasp on strategy," Rex said, having silently joined them to hear the plan. "General, I'd suggest letting me and Dameron take the full complement in that assault… and you take your command staff to that back door."

Ahsoka looked at Han to see what he thought of the idea. She didn't much care to leave them or their allies exposed like that, without Jedi backup, but maybe Han would see that flaw too.

Han frowned, thinking that over. "Risky, and I don't like going along with them setting themselves up as bait. But we don't have a lot of choice, either. Lady Tano, they'll need you. Luke, you ready for some more of that crazy stuff you pulled off?" 

"Of course, Han. And it wasn't crazy." 

Leia smiled, then looked at Han. "You, me, and Artoo should be enough to secure the doors and bunker if it actually does clear out for the fight, unless you want Chewbacca to guard us?"

"Pretty sure seeing three lightsabers will make whatever officer is leading this throw everything out at them," Rex said. "Unless it's a kid too young to know how kriffed they are. And if that's the case, we'll just make it clear he has to."

Ahsoka gave a sharp-edged smile at that. "Don't worry. I might even leave a walker intact to make the point, once they show up. Probably using holoprojectors to disguise where they parked them…"

Luke cast her a wary look, then had to chuckle at Rex. "Okay. Sounds about as good as it's going to get." He looked at the chief of the little hunters and bowed, grateful for their help -- and then he froze. "One other problem. We've got to knock out their comms **immediately** , or we'll have Vader on us. 

"He might not come down just for an attack, but if they report lightsabers..." 

"If it comes to that, he's mine," Ahsoka said with glittering eyes, her lekku reflecting the determination in her mind. "I can at least hold him long enough for things to get done."

"And keep his attention long enough for me to put a dent in his armor," Rex growled. His General would expect it.

Luke shook his head at both of them, not nearly as certain of their ability to deal with the terrifying, lethal menace that was his father as they were, but he wasn't going to say it in front of everyone. Besides, they had work to do. "Let's just hit their comms fast, huh?" 

"Sounds like a plan to me," said Leia, who never wanted to be anywhere near that monster again. 

"Yes sir!" Rex said, before they were moving to begin final prep for the assault. Ahsoka remained near Luke for a long moment, looking into his eyes.

"Did you ever see another Jedi fight, ever?" she finally asked, as her instincts led her to the answer on his doubt.

"Only Ben and Vader," Luke answered, grief slashing through him at the memory of his death. 

She pressed in against his chest, holding him for a moment. "It's okay. It's going to be fine," she told him. "You're going to grow up as the spoiled princeling of Naboo, with Master Kenobi and me both throwing Force tricks your way. But I want you to understand something, so you fear less in the battle, no matter what happens.

"I have my skill beads in mechanical engineering… and lightsaber. I am, without even trying to be arrogant, the best fighter of my generation. I killed an akul at eleven. I have held my own in the face of a battalion of droids bearing down on me. So if _he_ does show up, I promise you, it will not be the end."

Luke had no idea what an akul was, but from her phrasing and her demeanor, it was something large and dangerous. The rest of what she said he did have concrete references for, and he nodded slowly, his arm wrapping around her in response. She was so young -- and she'd seen so, so much more than he had. 

Rex's casual faith in her, too, was reassuring. "Okay," he answered softly, finally. "Well except that spoiled bit. Not so interested in that. Leia grew up a princess, and she's not spoiled, though." 

"If you think I'm not spoiling the hell out of my nephew, you need to think again," Ahsoka teased him. "And there's your million uncles to consider," she added, readying to move on, to find her vantage point.

"Million?!" Luke squawked at her back, shaking his head as he thought about having _her_ for an aunt. That somewhat broke his brain, but he also thought he envied the boy that would grow up with her. 

He dropped it as she trotted on away, and went to settle in for his own part of the attack. 

+++ 

There had not been a Darth Vader appearance.

There had been a lot of awe, as evidenced by the fact the Ewoks, as their allies were called, were all but falling over themselves to touch Ahsoka, Chewbacca, and Luke in their appreciation of the fighting skills.

Luke still had images of the fighting flicking through his mind, even as the binocs showed him the battle in space was in full swing. He had become convinced that gravity was merely a suggestion, having seen Ahsoka spring at a tree, bounce to a walker, and then the tree and back in order to get on top of it.

Her dual lightsabers had accounted mostly for equipment, disabling walkers, speeders, and comm gear with amazing results.

Rex, likewise, had proven the age in his face had little effect on his blasters and skill, helping Dameron lead the battle. They had managed to cause the bunker to empty to a skeleton staff, and Han had gotten Leia's help to rig the place.

They now had a lot of Imperial prisoners, one smoking crater where the bunker had been, and only minimal losses on their own side, even among the allies.

Keeping the Imps under control seemed to become much simpler when Rex started methodically moving behind the stormtrooper survivors and removing their helmets, Luke noticed with something of a twist in his chest. The people under the armor blinked as though the light hurt their eyes, and then he remembered the filtered quality of the light and the pop-up displays when he'd worn one. Were the Imps really that unused to having their helmets off? 

He took another look upwards, seeing Star Destroyers swinging slowly around the massive curve of the moon, heading towards the capital ships, _Home One_ and the others -- and then he actually dropped the binocs as their screen went pure white from a massive explosion. 

The Death Star. He could see the destruction with just his eyes as he blinked away the haze over his vision, massive ball of expanding flame and destruction -- and behind him he felt something _snap_. No, multiple somethings, he realized as he whipped around to look at the men. 

Ahsoka felt it too, as the not-there presences suddenly became a mass of confusion and struggle with duty versus a lack of comprehension.

"That filth…." she whispered, back stiff, lekku rigid, even as she let Rex finally treat the small burn she'd taken on her shoulder, now that all the others were seen to. "Jedi mind tricks are bad enough, but… I think he was actively holding their wills in his control!"

Leia, nearby, sucked in a soft breath, her eyes flicking over the suddenly changed men before they snapped back to Ahsoka. "...does that mean that the Emperor is dead?" she asked, before Luke could find the words. He was busy struggling with the idea that someone could do that, would ever do that... 

Ahsoka closed her eyes, reaching… and the clarity of knowing that the Sith had perished washed over her. "He died. I am sure of it."

She then looked at Luke soberly, wondering if she should probe for that connection to her Master.

"Don't do it," Luke answered. "Not -- not here. Once we're away from these people," he turned his left hand up and out towards the Ewoks, "then yes." 

He didn't want to be the reason any more of the Ewoks died. He'd been amazed by the subtlety of their traps and hidden weapons, the stockpiles intended for use against the walkers and against stormtroopers and walker alike. They were good people, he thought. 

She nodded; later they could learn what had become of Vader. She then leaned back against Rex, closing her eyes briefly. 

"Not standing up, Commander," he said, well-aware that she needed to sleep now, tucking her under an arm to go find a tree for his back, so he could let her get that sleep. She'd pushed herself through the night and then the fight, and now nothing really needed them.

"Strange girl," Han said, slipping up to Luke and Leia quickly. "What now?"

"You're the General," Leia pointed out, but she slipped an arm around his waist.

"We wait, I guess," Luke said, waving his hand at the slowly collapsing Imps, "I mean, we can't fit them on the shuttle and if we leave them here... I have this feeling they might get, well, eaten. So we're going to have to get a Corvette or something down here to take them into custody." 

Leia looked at the prisoners, then sighed and nodded. "We need to wait anyway. The Fleet will need time to recover and make small repairs, and Command… we're going to need to have a plan." She was shifting, slowly, from Rebel Commando to Senator-in-Exile as she weighed the death of the Emperor against the remaining threats.

Luke nodded, raking a hand through his hair before he just moved to find a place to sit. He hadn't done nearly what Ahsoka had, but he was still a little tired, and it was always a good idea to rest when you could. 

+++ 

Rex felt twitchy as Ahsoka remained deep in trance. She had joined him and the rest at the celebration, even sampled the Ewok's brew, despite, or to spite, Rex giving her a disapproving look. A little dancing (and how he had forgotten the way she could give herself to that with such abandon) and some eating, then she had suddenly asked him to come guard her.

That had been nearly two hours ago, and he had to wonder if it was time to break the trance. Her breathing was still regular at one nearly every minute, but there was a paleness to her skin and lekku he didn't much care for.

And then she was taking the choice away, saving herself as so often before, with a gasped word on her lips. 'Malachor', place of his nightmares, the world he had lost her to once before, lost his last hope of joy.

He hated hearing that word, loathed it, but he moved closer to her, reaching for her. If she thought she was heading for that place without him this time, she was **sadly** mistaken. Not again, not ever. "Ahsoka?" 

Her eyes cleared slowly, letting her see this man, the man she loved, that loved her. She was too young in her end of time. Now, however, with what she had found, allowing her to understand that Time was truly mutable, she felt the echoes of the relationship that had tied them together all the years she had yet to live.

"Rex." She pushed into his arms, holding him tight, wanting to be held. Her face pressed into the side of his neck, lips brushing skin for a moment, before she just held on.

He gathered her in closer, one hand slipping under her central lekku and up to the back of her neck to hold her, while his other arm wrapped low around her back. "I've got you, 'Soka. I'm here.... what is it?" 

She shook her head, not ready just yet. His scent… that was a good sensory blind. She focused on it, then slowly let herself listen to the blood pulsing under his skin, felt the actual texture of his skin, before she truly felt like she was completely in her own body and could stand on her own.

Not that she did or ever would; Rex would always be there.

"How strong you have had to be for me," she whispered, before smiling and shifting to see his face. "I can do it. I need a planet with a direct connection to the Force, but I can go back and save us all, Rex."

He blinked at her, once, and took comfort from the certainty in her eyes. "You're sure, _cyar'ika_?" 

'A planet with a direct connection to the Force'. Well, that was as plain as mud to him, but it seemed to make sense to her. "I'm going with you. Far as you can take me, anyway." 

He hadn't been any stronger than he had to be... why had she sounded almost startled by that? 

" _Cyar'e_ and more, yes?" She smiled, having glimpses of a future that would never be hers now. "I have no concrete idea where Malachor is, just a vague intuition, and a memory of it being among the Forbidden planets." She ran her hands down to lace with his. "And of course you'll be with me."

She needed to get Luke, needed to see if he could get them a ship… and then she realized it was still middle of the moon's night. "We should probably go rest… or eat. Definitely need more food."

Rex looked at the knowing in her eyes and nodded, murmuring, " _Cyar'e_ , _riduur_ , everything, _elek_. 

"The _Ghost_ couldn't spare me long enough to go back for you," he admitted that with a quiet growl, "and by the time I _had_ time and the Imps should've been gone... there was no sign of you. But I know where the kriffing hellhole is. " 

"Then you can guide us," she answered that before doing something she knew she wouldn't be able to with her own Rex, not for some time. She moved to kiss him, taking note of the beard and mustache and their feel, but mostly just stealing one token of the love they shared before they had to be near others.

He went still for a moment, shocked, but in the next breath he couldn't keep from kissing her back. He remembered the trick to kissing her without getting his tongue nicked on her sharp teeth, holding her in against his body. So brightly vibrant, so determined, her scent and taste everything he remembered how to want -- that she was too young didn't matter, not right now. It would go no further than this... but this he could have from her and give her. 

Her happy little trill, held in her throat, as they kissed was testimony to how he made her feel. She licked into his mouth, tasting him, all but purring at the way it felt to have her lekku caught against his chest. When she did finally bring the kiss to an end, it was with a small sigh.

" _Cyar'e_ ," she whispered, before tucking herself under his arm, so they could go back and find food and sleep before they tackled anything else.

That she would sleep nowhere but his arms for the rest of her stay in this time didn't need to be said.

++++

Luke didn't want to go without actually talking to Leia, without sharing the truth that had tormented him, but he hesitated to intrude on her and Han being … well, in love. As much or more in love as Luke had felt since he first laid eyes on Leia.

So he was fairly surprised when she slipped into the seat closest to him in _Home One's_ central mess hall, her hand settling on the table a few centimeters from his. 

"Hi," he said, then grimaced, because that sounded so bad, when he'd just been thinking about the weight of who they were, and all the complications.

"Hi, yourself," Leia answered softly, shifting her weight slightly, searching his face. He'd been troubled since he came back with Lady Tano, and she was worried about him. "Luke... are you alright?" 

He met her eyes, his own pale ones showing a struggle to her dark ones. Yet he searched her face, memorizing the lines all over again, thinking on what he wanted to say.

"Do you remember your mother? The one that gave birth to you?" he asked, knowing now that the strange kinship he had felt with Ben was an imprint memory. Yet he could not remember their mother, even on that instinctive level that was apparently common to Jedi.

Leia blinked, startled, and her head cocked slightly to the side. "...what? Luke, how did you even know I -- " 

Luke shrugged a shoulder. "I'm not even fully adopted. I was raised by an aunt and uncle, never knowing much beyond my father supposedly being killed on a freighter, and my aunt saying once that my mother was the most beautiful woman she'd ever seen. That's it. That's what I grew up with, Leia.

"And now," he continued, "now, I know it was partly a lie. I'd been learning it was a lie, but I think I've got the whole truth now, and I am curious about my mother's impact on me… and my twin."

Leia had listened to Luke's steady words, her hand slipping over to cover his, to tangle her fingers with his as he spoke. The idea of never having had parents twisted in her chest, an ache for him starting deep inside -- and then he said that last and she froze.  
His twin? 

What? 

She stared at him for a moment, and then a dozen or more little (and large) things fell into place. The way she'd known that wasn't a stormtrooper in her cell on the Death Star. The connection she'd felt when they first looked at each other. How much she'd needed to comfort him as they escaped. That the time she'd kissed him on Hoth, deep and passionate, had felt... almost right, but strange too, and not just because she'd been using one of the best men she'd ever met to make a point. That she'd known, whole and complete, that Luke would come for them. Known where to take the _Falcon_ to steal him away from the underside of Cloud City. Known before he came into view that Luke was there to get them away from Jabba. 

"Oh," she murmured softly, the corners of her mouth turning up a little as it suddenly made sense. "I -- Luke, you're _sure_?" 

"Yes." He shifted so both of his hands were on hers, still looking at her face. "You're my sister, Leia. And it's… been strange, trying to put the connection I feel with you into that context, to be honest.

"I was told I needed to protect you, to keep the secret still, but Ahsoka and I and Rex are leaving soon. I wanted you to know, in case anything happens to me, that you are my sister, that the Force… it's with you as well, though I think you've unconsciously pushed it down to better guard yourself from the Emperor and -- and Vader," he told her, that last hesitation a full pain in his chest.

Leia wrapped her hands around his, holding on as she searched his face as much as he was. That -- in one way, it was freeing, because she really had fallen stupidly in love with Han, but in another... she loved Luke, too. And this didn't -- 

\-- the pain in his voice, the stammer there, dragged her attention away from her confused thoughts and to Luke's hurt, her fingers squeezing. "What is it about him that's hurting you so much, Luke? What's wrong?" 

He shook his head, holding that tight. She couldn't know, shouldn't have to. He knew what Vader had done to her. And despite that, despite Alderaan… Leia had given _him_ comfort. "The truth started with something he said," Luke said instead. "My teachers confirmed it, Ahsoka's given me a little more.

"I can tell you her name, Leia. The woman that gave birth to us," he offered, to keep the secret that Vader was Anakin locked away.

Leia's eyes widened at that, her hands closing on his again. "I -- when I was very, very little, I saw a woman, sometimes. She looked like Sabé, my governess, but she wasn't. She was so beautiful, and... so sad. I'd forgotten all about that. Who... who was she, Luke?" 

Luke smiled softly. "Her name was Padmé Amidala. Or Padmé Naberrie. Artoo said both are right. She was a Queen and a Senator both, from what he has told me. Ahsoka said she was smart and strong and courageous and compassionate. Rex added beautiful, to which Ahsoka said, 'for a human'. I get the impression Ahsoka thinks a lot of us are way too pale," he added about that last. "But our mother was from Naboo. Do you know anything about that world?"

Leia had bitten her tongue at 'Naberrie', taking a couple of breaths to keep quiet until Luke finished, though she was reeling a little. "You said Naberrie?" 

Luke nodded, looking surprised, and Leia had to just shake her head for a moment, then she managed a smile. "The Senator from Naboo, before _he_ dissolved the Senate, was a Naberrie. Just a few years older than me. We were friends, much as we could be. And she... might have been family? 

"That's..." she didn't have words for it, so she let that she just trailed off say it for her. "Yes, I do know a little about Naboo." 

"Family. We might have family." He squeezed at her hands in surprise and delight. "Something to explore, maybe." If Ahsoka failed. If the timeline didn't crumble when she went back. "We have each other, no matter what."

He then shoved the more complicated side of his feelings down, and sat up. "So, does this mean I give Han a speech or something? About not hurting my sister?" 

Leia freed one hand to swat him on the shoulder, mock-glaring. "Don't you **dare** , farmboy! ...though, the look on his face might be almost worth it." She said that last very thoughtfully, as if she were reconsidering. 

Luke laughed, his quiet smile turning to the more radiant one he typically reserved for her or Han. "I just might. So Chewie can laugh at him."

That made Leia laugh, that brilliant smile something she'd missed since that awful day on Cloud City, and she squeezed his fingers, leaning to kiss his cheek. "He will, won't he?" 

He took that kiss, closed his eyes, and then turned it into a hug instead, pulling her close. "I… what Ahsoka is going to do… we don't know how it will affect us, our history and future," he said softly. "But there's a big part of me that is looking forward to the idea of growing up WITH you."

Leia wrapped her arms around him, leaning her head against his shoulder, as she thought about that. "...a brother, huh? That would have been fun. Winter is great, but -- it'll be very different, for the you and me there." 

"Better, hopefully, and definitely better for the lives the Empire destroyed." Luke held her there a long moment. "So… let's go find Han? Or just sit here some more?"

She hummed softly, still leaning against his shoulder, then nodded. "Let's go find Han, yeah." 

Brother. He was her _brother_. 

He stood with her still close, and guided her to where he knew Han was (dodging Command by working on the Falcon). They passed Rex and Ahsoka on their way in, walking much the same way, and Rex had to smile.

" _Jetii_ and Senators," he said quietly after the other pair passed. "Suppose that makes the smuggler her handmaiden?"

Ahsoka all but died giggling at that idea.

Leia leaned against Luke as they came to a stop near the Falcon, looking around for Han -- apparently, whatever he was working on was inside, from the sounds, and she let her arm slip from around him to go up the ramp. It was never hard to find their favorite smuggler-turned-General (what were their lives, that there were two now?) when he was working on the Falcon, the yelps and profanity would lead you straight to him. 

Luke let her lead, and then hung in the doorway, as Han was working on a fried set of circuits in the lounge. He almost asked why… and then recalled how jury-rigged the ship was. For all Luke knew, it was actually necessary to flight or fighting.

Han did know when he was being observed, and turned in time to greet Leia as she joined him, looking past to see Luke looking … quietly happy.

That was good.

"Leia… Luke," he said. "Hiding from the command staff too?"

"Not really," Leia replied, shaking her head as she dropped to sit next to him, sliding an arm behind his waist, "what, we can't just want to see you?" 

"As long as you're not dragging me back to the command staff, we're cool," Han said with amusement, before settling his arm around her. He saw Luke's face go still, the smile gone, and went tense.

"Han, I think I need to make something very clear to you," Luke began in his serious voice, making Leia stiffen even as she leaned a little more into Han. Then she heard Chewbacca's quiet step in the galley and realized Luke already knew he was there. 

"Luke," she protested anyway, her arm tightening as she held on to Han.

"Hey, kid, don't go -- " 

"No, you need to know that I am not going to tolerate anything hurting my sister," Luke said with that firm voice he used on Rogue Squadron if things were getting out of hand. "Understand?"

Chewie stuck his head out the door, eyes going from Luke to Han, a Han who was sitting there looking stunned and shell-shocked, mouth open.

Leia shifted to where she could see Han's face -- and couldn't help the almost-giggle that escaped her lips at just how stunned Han looked. That drew his attention to her, and she nodded, her mouth quirking a little ruefully. "Pretty sure I had that exact same look half an hour ago when he told me," she said softly, before turning to look at Luke, "and _someone_ needs to remember that I can take care of myself." 

Luke broke into a grin, and then moved over to sit with them, while Chewie did his laughing from the galley, popping back in now that he knew everything was fine.

"Sister?" Han asked, still floored, looking at Leia, then Luke.

"Sister," Luke promised him. "And I'm pretty sure she got a good deal for her heart," he added, to show his approval.

Leia twisted and slipped her other hand up Han's cheek, looking at his stunned blue eyes, the way he still hadn't quite gotten his jaw back to its usual line, and leaned in to kiss him again. "Apparently," she said when she let go of his lips, "we're twins." 

"Oh." He kissed her then, before sitting back, eyes looking more settled, maybe even mischievous as he slid an arm behind Luke beside them. "Twins, huh?" He shook his head. "Maybe I should have made a play for both of you, instead of thinking I needed to back off and give you two some space…."

Luke wound up coughing, stunned by Han even suggesting either of those situations.

Leia laughed in bright delight, grinning at Luke's startled expression -- he should have known better than to try and play this with Han, and now Chewie's laughter from the galley was at him -- even as she considered that possibility. "Sometimes, flyboy, I like the way you think." 

"Leia!" Luke protested, even as he flushed at the ideas both of them were putting in his head.

Han smirked, keeping his arms around both of them. "I'd be glad to take middle," he added, to see how red he could get the Kid to turn.

Leia shifted to look at Luke a little more closely, trying to hide that Han's low, sensual drawl had her shivering a little, her breath catching, while she tried to decide if they were upsetting him or just startling him. Her twin, her Luke, was starting to turn a color startlingly reminiscent of Artoo's optic, but there was no anger in his bright blue eyes. 

Which of their parents had had the blue, and which the dark of hers? The question was a minor distraction from her checking on her Luke, and she decided that he wasn't angry, just startled and confused. 

Chewbacca rumbled something she didn't entirely catch -- damn her trouble with Shyriiwook, anyway -- and his footsteps headed towards the ramp. 

"I should probably…." Luke stammered, fidgeting, but then Han's hand cupped around his shoulder, and he forgot the rest of his words. All of his tangled emotions about Leia, the grief he'd never really shed over Biggs, and the general feeling that in a lot of ways, he was going to cease to exist soon were all rolling up against the fact he did find Han attractive. He already knew he loved Han, but this?

"Stay, Kid, and help me make Her Highness lose control?" Han invited, eyes going darker, voice in that low purr of assured sensuality. He was not going to lose the opportunity that had landed in his lap without a fight.

Leia actually shivered then, her hand clenching on Han's back, and she had to swallow and take a breath before she could say firmly, "I thought you'd volunteered for middle, Han? 

"Luke," she added, her hand sliding from Han's cheek to find her twin's shoulder instead, "don't go. Stay with me, with us..." 

Something deep in her veins was singing rightness, now. Biologically, Luke was her twin, closer to her than any other could be. Emotionally, she loved both of these men, and would have been happy to have Luke as her brother and Han as her lover if that was all they wanted. But she'd heard in Han's voice that he wasn't joking, that he wanted Luke too, and that -- that was even better. 

Luke licked at his lips, feeling the pulse of the Force encouraging him to accept what he wanted. He nodded, slowly, before he managed to find words.

"Pretty sure Han can do anything he puts his mind to, from whichever position he's in," he managed to say, just to show he wasn't some innocent kid.

"I figured starting in the middle was great, but we've got all day," Han promised them both, gently guiding them both to get up and go with him. 

"Hedonist," Leia told him, smiling to herself at Luke's reply -- though she had pretty much the same thought about their scoundrel. 

++++

Ahsoka felt her nerves growing more as they brought the ship down on the desolate planet near the ruins that still radiated with Sith energy. She could not sit still. She couldn't even settle with Rex reaching out for her.

This planet…

...it would be her death if she failed. If not death, oblivion at best.

"There," she said, pointing at a triangular hole once they were nearer to the ruins. "That's where I have to go."

"...think you got a word wrong there, Commander," Rex told her, as Luke moved to put the ship on the ground as close as they could get. 

Ahsoka turned to him, eyes welling with tears at his unswerving loyalty. "Rex, I never deserved you in the least!" she said, flinging herself at him, so he could hold her now that it was so close. Would she win his love in her own time? It was the only truly selfish question she had about this. Everything else… had to happen.

"Shh... shh, _cyar'ika_ , shh," he murmured, knowing how overwrought she had to be to show her emotions this strongly instead of bluster. "Shh," he said again, low, before he pressed a kiss just below one akul-tooth. "You're wrong about that, you know. You always have." 

She sniffled a little, then just cuddled as Luke got the ship properly settled. "I can do this. I will do this. Our clan needs me to do this. The Republic… no, too big. Clan. _Aliit_. Little things make big things," she said softly, trying to push herself to the right point in her head to be able to do this. She was too young… but Anakin wasn't. If she saved her brothers, both _jetii_ and Vod'e, they would all survive.

Rex nodded, holding her in gently. "Our _aliit_ needs you, _cyar'e_. And you've never let us down in your life. You can do this." 

Luke was grateful he'd already told her everything he'd managed to coax out of Han, grateful she'd promised to remember, to look for him as soon as things were safe. He couldn't imagine their lives without Han, after all. 

She drew in a deep breath, then another, and slowly got her calm around herself. She laced her fingers with Rex's for a long moment, then turned to leave the ship. 

"We will do this," she said, drawing as much strength from Rex's confidence as from the fact she couldn't let Skyguy's kids live the way they had in this lifetime.

The very air seemed charged with energy as Ahsoka stepped off the ship, Rex close at her back, and she started walking for the entrance. A vague sense of having done this before came over her, making her shiver, before she could even begin to see the runes and marks in one of the older scripts she had studied in Madame Nu's classes.

Luke followed along behind them, watching the way they moved. Ahsoka had spent every spare hour they had teaching him things he apparently should have learned as a child, techniques and reasons Yoda hadn't had time to tell him in-between trying to hone him into someone that could face Vader and the Emperor and survive. He was grateful for that, profoundly grateful, and he wanted to be there to help if he could. 

"Please don't touch anything," she suddenly said. "That might be how all of this started but I'd hate to make things worse."

As she finished talking, there was a birdcall, a trill that was almost Togruti in essence, and Ahsoka turned to see as a convor swept in… and took her shoulder for a perch, long tail draping around the other side over her central headtail.

"That … I'd swear I saw one when I came looking for you, but only at a distance… and only the one," Rex said, watching it rub its cheek on her montral.

"I'll be careful," Luke agreed, before blinking in surprise at the bird. "Brave creature, isn't it?" 

"Not a creature…" Ahsoka said, reaching up to stroke feathers with her fingernail. "Look at her more closely, Luke, and at me."

Rex shivered; he'd been afraid this was _jetii_ stuff… and he knew he'd been seeing those birds everywhere when he had first seen Ahsoka again. She'd always gone soft around the eyes to see them, but with a sadness at her lips.

The Force flowed between girl and animal, blending, becoming one, while shading in powerful white light at the bird… and a darker-tinged gray around the girl.

"...part of you, somehow?" Luke asked, baffled, his head tilting as he looked at the connection. Yes, a Jedi's strength was in the Force, and the Force was in everything, waiting to be spoken with, but... 

Ahsoka reached out and rested her hand in Rex's. "I died once… I found that in my meditation. To bring me back, the light side, the ashla, of the Force, partly merged with me," she explained. "They called her Daughter. The Son… I think the Son left a part of himself in Skyguy. The destructive side.

"But because of this, I can go home. By giving in to who She was, and letting that power place me where I am needed now," she finished.

Luke only half thought he understood, but if it would get her home, back to where she needed to be to deal with this, to stop all of the destruction and death, he was all for it. "At least there's a way," he said, soft, still looking at the melding between woman and 'bird'. 

Rex squeezed her hand, trying not to think about the 'died' part, or that his brain could tell him when. He remembered Anakin Skywalker being… odd about Ahsoka, until she tore into him during a sparring session that reminded him she was tough as nails.

"Mortis," he said. "That weirdness."

"Yes," she said, before moving forward, going to the spot beneath the Temple that was calling her, the one where she could start her trip back. Rex followed, alert to potential risks and dangers, even as his nerves prickled, worrying about what these changes would do to his 'Soka.

Luke trailed behind them, looking around at the strange inscriptions, but the deeper they went, the more his skin crawled. "This... this feels like the cave," he murmured, placing the sensations. Cold, and pain, and malice. 

"The Sith and Jedi fought here," Ahsoka said. "I… know that?" She shook her head. "I really hope I only have to remember the important stuff when I get back out of here." She rubbed her cheek on the bird, who trilled softly at her. "It was a Sith stronghold. Before the Rule of Two was enforced. In my lessons, Malachor was a forbidden planet for Jedi."

"And yet Yoda sent Kanan, the boy, and you here." Rex paused. "Kanan had a different name. He survived by hiding, and you mentioned him being younger than you," Rex told her.

Luke shook his head, wondering, then said worriedly, "Should we have written it down? Made a recording? If you're worried about what you remember..." 

Ahsoka shook her head. "No, those memories are mine. It's… it's what the Daughter brings. Like remembering being married, remembering what happened here, knowing that Rex speaks of Master Billaba's apprentice, even though I know him as Caleb…. Those memories are of the Daughter, taken in part from the Ahsoka-that-was-captured here."

"Captured?" Rex asked, horror pulsing through his veins, panic running under his skin. His wife, his partner, his Ahsoka, _captured_? She was **out there** somewhere, and he'd -- 

Ahsoka squeezed his hand. "The Daughter cannot feel me, other than me-here-now, but the me-then-there left this world alive. Taken by the one chosen by the Son." She took a deep breath. "What he did from there, She does not know, and so I don't know." Her voice was gentle and caring.

That didn't actually help much. Taken by _Vader_ , by the monster his General had been turned into? 

No, that didn't help. Not when Vader was known for almost never taking prisoners. He killed his way across the worlds, not -- 

"It's never going to happen," he told himself, more than any of the others. She was going to go back and fix it, make this entire timeline or future or whatever _never happen_. But if they somehow still existed, after she went back, he now had something he had to do. 

Somehow he had to get the better of Darth Vader (who had to be the reason the Fleet had pulled out when it did) and find out _where his wife was_. What he'd done with her. Ahsoka squeezed his hand again, leading them deeper, until they came to a spot that pulsed with energy so strongly even Rex could feel the press.

She let go of Rex long enough to move to Luke, reaching up to place her hands along his face. "Thank you. For guiding me. For being strong. For everything." She then smiled. "I'll be a good Aunt, I promise."

She then stepped back, to let him answer that.

"That sounds awesome," Luke answered, his hands settling behind her shoulders, careful to avoid the lekku. "And... I don't feel like I did much, but you're welcome anyway. Thank _you_ , for letting me know my father a little better." 

"What can I say, I'm Skyguy's number one fan… but then, he's mine too." She moved away, going back to Rex, her eyes a little shy as she did. "Rex… I don't know how anything will go between us from here, once I get back," she said softly. "But I do, and will, love you always."

Rex nodded, his hands settling on her hips, holding her, his mouth quirking just slightly. "I know, _cyar'e_. Do something about me being oblivious a little sooner this time around, hm?" 

She tipped up a little and kissed him, softly. "I'll try." She smiled lovingly, and had to make herself let go, so that she could do what needed to be done, visualizing Anakin, reaching for her sense of him, letting it fill her thoughts and heart, to guide her back to him.

+++

It hurt, and she was going to be sick all over again, and everything was too bright, too loud….

Then reality crashed into itself, breaking and bending as a key piece on the cosmic game of chess was moved to a new position. The Togruta curled into a pain-wracked, nauseous ball of misery on soft carpet in a cool, climate controlled space, her montrals still ringing with the rip and tear of the fabric of reality.

Artoo's frantic beeping called to the pair in the bedroom, as he reacted to sudden changes in his environment… but one of those people was well-aware that things were wrong/changing as his head rang with the Force being emphatic.

Ahsoka curled into a tight ball, trying to make her body calm down, trying to dampen the sensory stimulation so her sanity didn't fracture. It felt worse than the first trip through, and… she was even more scared, knowing she was on her own now, to try and change all of history from this moment forward.

"Ani, what is it?" Padmé asked as she sat up, reacting to him and to Artoo, her fingers moving toward the compartment in the table that would give her a small blaster.

"I don't -- " Anakin shook his head slightly, the Force giving him double vision as he tried to reach out, to sense who or what was upsetting Artoo. The answer he thought he was getting made no sense, and couldn't be possible. That made him call his lightsaber to his mechanical hand, a quick motion telling her to stay back even as he rolled out of the bed. He scooped up his outer robe with his left, grateful he'd pulled a pair of leggings back on before settling into sleep, and moved towards the door. He triggered it with the Force while he was a good distance away. No attack came, he heard nothing being prepped, so he went out into the main room. 

Artoo's whistling beeps weren't helping his concentration and he said, "Shh, Artoo!" before he closed his eyes and turned on the main lights. 

That got a whimper, a noise of nothing but pain, and he darted towards the sound without opening his eyes. The Force was sight enough, he saw -- 

"Ahsoka?!" His eyes snapped open to check what the Force was already telling him, that the being in his wife's apartment was his pa -- his **former** padawan -- and from the way she was curled up, she was in pain. 

Skyguy. Real and safe and Light-touched-by-dark. Not Fallen. Ahsoka wanted to throw herself into his arms but just raising her head **hurt**.

"Master," she whimpered. The word felt right. Yoda had apologized and called her Padawan.

The whimper, the dull grey of her lekku, her closed eyes and scrunched-tight expression all told him she was in terrible pain, and the tight-drawn knot of her body reinforced that. He flicked his lightsaber to a table and crossed the distance between them in an instant, dropping to a knee to gather his Snips into his arms, ignoring his headache and reaching for his healing skill. He sank the Force into her body, looking for the source of her pain, his arms wrapped around her. 

What had happened to her? Why was his little one hurting like this? 

More importantly, how did he fix it? 

Ahsoka curled into his hold, fixing her mind solidly in their bond. His energy was a balm, slowly soothing her. 

"Skyguy." She opened her eyes, seeing his stress, making her reach up to touch his face. "Sorry." It was for arriving like this, for leaving him.

"Shh," Anakin murmured, shaking his head a little. He'd moved to sit on the closest couch once he had her in his arms, able to support her better there. He hadn't found an injury, hadn't found a source for her pain... but she was almost clinging to the bond between them. He leaned to her hand, pressing his cheek to her fingertips. "Shh. It's okay, as long as _you're_ okay. Hush, little one, I've got you. It's okay." 

"I can do this, I will do this," she whispered, wrapping herself in his care for her. She was so afraid of failing but she had her men to think of. "It has been a weird few days, Skyguy."

"A weird _few_ days, Snips?" Anakin asked, blinking at her, keeping her held against his chest as her words made him worry again, press his consciousness to hers in concern. "The trial only ended yesterday, kiddo. Though, I guess that entire kriffing mess counts as 'weird'..." 

She had to laugh. "Oh Skyguy, no. That was bad but it's nothing compared to what I need to do now." Ahsoka shifted to sit by him, lacing her fingers in his prosthetic hand. "But you were sleeping and this is Padmé's apartment. So I should let you sleep… if I can use the couch?"

"You say something like that, and then expect me to _sleep_?" Anakin asked her, arching an eyebrow as he shifted to keep their fingers interlaced now that she was out of his lap. "But _you're_ exhausted and need rest, so... I'll try. And of course you can."

Something worse than that trial? Than -- Anakin shook his head a little, focusing on here and now rather than waste time wondering. In just a second, he would get up and go get her a blanket, tuck her into the couch, make sure she would rest...

She leaned in under his arm. "Just don't go anywhere without me. And I want my beads back; Master Yoda apologized."

She yawned then. She hadn't realized how tired she really was until she was safe with him. Rex had helped her sleep but being away from her time had taken a toll.

Anakin blinked, startled. When had she seen Master Yoda? Also, that stiff-necked stubborn -- being -- had apologized? Really? 

He was thrilled to hear her say she wanted her beads back, though, and he ducked his head to press his cheek against one montral. "Okay, Snips. That's no problem, and neither are your lightsabers. I'll get them for you in the morning. Here, lay down and I'll get you a blanket," he said in response to that yawn, dragging himself up away from her. 

"Got a pair. But want mine." She curled up and closed her eyes. "Skyguy? It really wasn't about you when I left. But I won't leave you again. Or our men."

"Shh," he told her as he fetched the blanket and tucked it around her, lightly petting one montral. "Shh. I know it wasn't, Snips. I know. Sleep now, little one." 

She was asleep almost instantly, and Anakin pulled his lightsaber back to his hand before he went to his wife. 

Padmé was in the door of their room, looking worried. She waited until he closed the door behind them. "Is she okay?"

Anakin shook his head slightly, wrapping his arm around her. "She's... something's happened. Something that made her experience several days since I saw her this afternoon. She's exhausted, and... I think still in some pain. 

"But at least now I know she's safe." 

"We'll find out more in the morning." She tucked in, arm around his waist. "Come to bed now." 

"Anything you say, my wife," Anakin answered, his arm sliding around her before he followed that command. He hadn't expected to fall asleep again, but knowing that she and Padmé were both with him, right here, with Artoo on watch... that was soothing enough to let him drop back into sleep.

+++ 

Ahsoka startled awake but Artoo chirped at her and she remembered. With care to be quiet, she stood and stretched, her body feeling better. 

"Artooey, do you think I can make breakfast?" she asked, padding over to pet his dome. Threepio was still recharging beside him.

Artoo hummed for a moment, then chirped agreement. His pilot might notice the moving around, but he would stay with the Senator when he remembered that Snips was here. [How did you get in?] he asked quietly, [was nothing there, and then... you!] 

"The Force," she answered. "I was in the future." She padded toward the kitchen to start food. "And I am so scared, Artoo. I have a lot to fix."

Artoo followed her, attempting several times to process those words into things that made sense, and finally admitting defeat. [Future?] he asked, puzzled. [Will help, if you need help,] he added.

"I know." She smiled. "You helped me in the future too." She found meat in the freezer, then things that humans preferred for breakfast. "Is it just the day after the trial?"

[Yes,] Artoo agreed, pleased that he had -- would? -- helped her, though the concept challenged his logic circuits and he gave up on understanding it. 

"Good." She focused on cooking then, getting her thoughts together.

It didn't take long before Anakin was awakened by the presence of someone moving around, but Padmé was right there against his body, who... _Ahsoka_ , he remembered, and nuzzled his wife. 

Padmé purred, waking slowly with a stretch against him. "Good morning, Ani." She kissed him then, glad to wake with him there. Some day this wouldn't be the exception.

"Good morning, Angel," Anakin answered, his arm wrapping down around her as she stretched, pressing a kiss to her temple. "I think my Padawan is... trying to make breakfast in your kitchen." 

"Oh good. She is still here, and not a figment of my imagination." She cuddled him a moment longer, worried, but not wanting to get up just yet. She wasn't needed at the Senate for a few more hours yet. "I don't remember giving her the code; remind me to fix that," she added. It was Ahsoka; she trusted the girl implicitly.

"She's still here," Anakin agreed, "and okay. I... have no idea how she got in, but I'm pretty sure it didn't involve the doors." 

"Jedi," she said affectionately, before smiling at him. "My Jedi in particular seem good at the unusual."

"It's not our fault," Anakin protested, dipping in to kiss her for a moment, the sound of that 'my Jedi' pleasantly reverberating in the back of his mind. 

She giggled a little, but cooperated with that kiss fully. When they parted, she was still smiling. "Let's go check on your padawan, and find out what happened to her."

Anakin nodded, his fingertips stroking along her side before he slid to his feet and started getting dressed. Which took just about as long for him as it did for his wife... longer, actually, when he had to track down pieces of his robes. 

Padmé was the one to notice, as she came into the kitchen, that Ahsoka was not wearing what she had been wearing the day before. The clothes didn't fit her as well as usual, and the sabers were distinctly different… but then, Padmé had the real ones in her chest, because Anakin had wanted them safe from other Jedi.

She swept over and claimed a hug, squeezing tightly in her joy. "Good morning, Ahsoka," she said.

Ahsoka beamed at her, even as she compared Leia and Luke to her in her memory. Yes, definitely their mom, as if there could have been any doubt. "Hi," she said, before looking at her Master. "And good morning, Skyguy."

"Good morning, Snips. You look... much better," he said, moving over to wrap an arm around her for a moment, before he looked towards the cooking area and took a long, curious sniff. "Breakfast, then talking?" 

"Yeah. Not touching this mess in my head on an empty stomach, even if Rex did feed me just before we set down… no not Rex-now, Rex when I was," she said.

"Time travel?" Padmé asked, incredulous. At Ahsoka's nod, she just shook her head. "My Jedi are definitely unusual."

Ahsoka's lekku brightened to be claimed like that, but then, if the Senator was Skyguy's, she was very much _aliit_.

"You know, you're not nearly as surprised as I would have expected," Anakin told her, waving his right hand between him and Padmé, raising an eyebrow. 

"Skyguy, the whole legion's got several bets on you two, you know? And you're not subtle when you love someone." Her eyes sparkled. "Plus, future. I know things."

Padmé laughed at the girl's tone of voice on that, all spooky and mysterious with a hint of amusement. "What kind of bets?" she asked.

Anakin grumbled at both of them, before his ears pricked at Padmé asking about the bets and he looked at Ahsoka. 

"Mm.... when you got together," Ahsoka ticked the first finger of her right hand with her left, "who asked who, if you're married or just together, if you're married 'who proposed', when Skyguy's going to tell the Council they can just cope because he's tired of hiding... um, there's one about if it's just you two or if you're a triad with Master Kenob -- " 

" **What?!** " 

Ahsoka grinned, before sliding food onto plates. "With Master Kenobi or maybe one of your ladies, and then there's one about if you'll have kids or adopt," she added, and that made her smile. "Seriously, we bet on everything!"

Padmé could not help but laugh at all that, before she took her plate. "That is a lot of betting."

"They really do bet on everything," Anakin had to admit, still flushed from the idea that some of the men thought that he was -- that he would -- with _his Master_!? And he was not even going to say a word about the comment on the handmaidens, that was Padmé's, not his. 

The bit about Kenobi was filed in the back of Padmé's mind for now. If the men saw something, maybe she should see if Anakin wanted that.

Ahsoka settled with her food, tearing into with relish. She was not looking forward to the discussion, to what needed to happen, so she was glad she had entertained them a little.

Anakin took his plate and started to eat, having settled next to Padmé to do so. The idea that the men knew, that he wasn't succeeding in hiding her -- that was terrifying on one level, because what if the Council caught wind of it, decided to expel him., send him away from his men and the war that he **had** to fight? But on the other hand, it was freeing... and a little euphoric. They wouldn't bet on he and Padmé's future if they didn't think they could last, and his men were surprisingly good judges of people, for their limited experience. Often better than he was, really. 

He gathered up the dishes with the Force once the two most important women in his life were done eating and moved them to the cleaning cabinet, opening it to stick them all inside, along with everything Ahsoka had used to make the meal. 

"Thanks, Skyguy," Ahsoka said, not even blinking at using the Force for a mundane task. Of course, she did the same where she wouldn't be fussed at. "Milady, I'm going to warn you that the things I need to say are very… bad. And painful. And I might have a breakdown trying to get it all out. So it's totally up to you if you want us to go find somewhere else."

"No. You're family, Ahsoka, and I would like to know the dangers firsthand. And support you both." Padmé's voice was firm on that, and Ahsoka nodded, before refilling her kaf.

"I spent… several days in a future that I desperately want to prevent," she began. "I'm not crazy… and Skyguy, you might recognize this." She pulled the small lightsaber, handing it to him.

Anakin took the shoto, and the crystal's resonance told him who it belonged to even more than the shape and style of it. Though that was pretty unmistakeable, too. "Snips, this is -- this is Master Yoda's!" 

He remembered her saying Master Yoda had apologized... had she meant in this future she'd experienced? 

"Yes." Her lekku and face were both sad. "He -- he was dying. And then he did, but he apologized to me. Called me Padawan. Because I have to fix things. We took it so I'd have at least one… and then I managed to make another with the parts the Knight who found me had." She wrinkled her nose. "Synthetic." She handed that one over too. "I know it all sounds so bad, but I have to save our men, save… save you, Skyguy."

Padme's breath caught in her throat at that, and Ahsoka looked sadly at her.

"And you."

Master Yoda, dying. For the middle of her words, Anakin was only half listening, rocked by the confusion that thought brought. He had so many problems with the ancient Jedi that it would take a meter to list them, but the idea of him dead... was like the idea of a _star_ dying, and terrified him as deeply as learning that the stars **did** die had. 

He was with Padmé, with Ahsoka, he wasn't alone and it wasn't night, the dragon that was his fear had _no place_ here, and he tried to push it away. Tried, looking at his Padawan, to be worthy of her, and rid himself of it. 

Tried and could not manage it, because as Ahsoka kept talking, things only got worse. Save their men. What was the threat, what had she seen? The threat to him didn't matter, he was Anakin Skywalker, he would be fine -- 

\-- and then there were the last two words, and the terror and rage and panic clawed their way up out of his chest, horns and fangs and claws all rending at his composure, his calm, all of the walls he kept around the rage starting to buckle at the thought of losing his wife, the center of his universe, his more-beautiful-than-the-angels Angel... 

Ahsoka cringed. She was right, too right, about what had probably been the catalyst. It centered on her Master's love of this woman. She rode out the rage, drawing back from the emotions it provoked inside her… but she threw herself at their training bond with all her determination to save them.

"Ani." Padmé reached out to him, swallowing her fear for everything said to try and soothe his pain. "She knows things; she can help!"

Ahsoka's ferocious protectiveness and determination slid past his defenses and somehow caught onto his own, a mental hand-around-wrist that let him latch back on, grabbing hold of her, feeling the hammering thud of his heart slow a little, even before he heard Padmé's voice, felt her touch settle on his shoulder. 

She was right there and safe, and she was right, Ahsoka knew things, had seen, knew where the danger was. He took a breath for the first time in... a while, by the burn in his lungs, half-nodding as he kept hold of his Snips. 

Ahsoka waited, giving him time. "I'm going to say it outloud, Skyguy. I love you. You are the best Master I could hope for. You've been my friend. You've taught me so much. And I will not let anything or anyone take you from me!" she told him. "Kriff the Council if they are so afraid of being sentient, free-willed beings that they can't see Attachment is a strength!"

Padmé had to smile for the ferocity, even as she settled to hold Anakin a little more firmly. "Agreed," she said softly.

"First thing. This is the easier part of the things I have to stop in some ways, Skyguy," Ahsoka continued. "Our men, they are at risk. All of them. Tup, then Fives, who managed to warn Rex, wind up caught up in this. And then they… they…" She couldn't say it, and just changed tracks. "There's a chip. In them. It has to come out!"

Anakin had smiled slowly at Ahsoka's emphatic defense, the way she flew in the face of thousands of years of Jedi teaching to tell him what her heart knew was right. His mouth had started to open, to tell her that if he was really such a good Master, she would be more able to release her attachments -- but Obi-Wan was the best Master _anyone_ could ask for, and look at him! 

But then she switched to telling them about the problems, and all hints of good humor vanished as fast as they'd tried to bubble up. "What kind of a 'chip'?" he asked, low, holding on to calm with both hands and his teeth and his link to her. 

"One that takes them away from who they were, and gives control to a man who will use them to destroy everything," she said soberly. "Tup's went off early. Rex and Artoo and … well, Master Kenobi, sort of, were my sources for most of this.

"Tup carried out a violent act, it gets hushed up, and he's gone. Only Fives believed there was something up, tried to get the truth, and wound up making it to Rex before he was lost. Rex went to prove it, but didn't get back in time to save everyone," Ahsoka said. "I don't know if there's a way to deactivate it without removal, but we have to be very careful, very quiet, and very quick to figure that out for them all."

"Naboo." Padmé was firm on that. "We have good facilities, and the units can be rotated through, with what happens there under tight security."

Rex and Artoo meant that the intel was absolutely trustworthy. Obi-Wan would, but what did she mean, 'sort of'? Tup was their baby, one of the ones they'd gotten in most recently -- a good one, Rex approved of him, but their baby. What -- 

'Gives control to a man that will destroy everything'... his eyes narrowed more. "...we _knew_ Dooku had had a hand in the Vod'e's creation, **why** didn't we look for the long game?" 

He was carefully not thinking about the idea of anything that could manipulate his men like that, could forcibly change them, make them obey (like an embedded bomb, like -- ) 

"I don't know, Skyguy? Maybe the fact they, mostly, believe in the Republic with all their hearts, despite never having had a choice in the matter blinded us." Ahsoka was shaking a little, wrapping her arms around herself.

How was she going to defuse the bomb in his head?

"You look as frightened as I feel, Ahsoka," Padmé said softly, getting a nod in response. "Ani, why don't you find her proper sabers, and the three of us take this somewhere else? Either in my ship or yours, but … whatever else needs to be said, probably needs to be done at a distance, so you don't cause a riot here."

The stately woman could feel the rage so clearly, but she knew it for what it was. Her neighbors, her security force? They wouldn't.

Anakin blinked, then nodded slowly. "That -- yes. That's a good idea, Padmé. We came in on the _Twilight_ , we can take it out-system. Before I... make things any worse than I already have, you're right." 

He got to his feet and moved, heading across the room to go and get into the chest with her lightsabers and beads, bringing all three back quickly. 

Ahsoka reached for her lightsabers first, wanting them back at her hips, the feel of their crystals singing through her. She hesitated a little about the beads, but… she could not fix the Order from outside. And Yoda had said they were wrong, all she had ever wanted to hear after the trial.  
Anakin studied her face for a moment, then lifted his hands to arrange her beads himself, carefully hooking the end of them back under the central akul-tooth, mending the broken clasp there with a twist of the Force. He ran them back along her montrals gently, letting them fall on either side of her central lekku. "Much better," he said, looking at her. 

She smiled, sadly, then tucked in to hug him tight around his waist. "Thank you, Master. Thank you so much."

Padmé emerged in better clothes for travel, having called and reassured security while asking for someone else to deal with the Senate today. She paused to see that hug, knowing this was a healing moment for both of them. Trying to save Ahsoka… had been a cooperative effort between them and shown her so much about her husband's dedication.

Anakin wrapped his arms hard around her, holding her against his body as tight as she was holding him. "You're welcome, my Padawan," he answered her, his voice as grave as hers had been. This was a moment to be serious... but not too serious, either. "My Snips." 

She rolled her eyes, then squeezed him again. "My Skyguy." She then pulled back, and smiled at Padmé. "Ready to go watch me stick both feet in my mouth to try and get all this said?"

"I doubt that, Ahsoka." The Senator joined them both, ready to leave via the landing pad to go get Ani's ship.

"I doubt it too," Anakin told her, reaching for his wife as they headed for her speeder. It would do to get them to the Temple grounds, and he could bring the _Twilight_ out low. "Come on, Artoo, we're going to need you to run the ship." 

[Want to hear. To help.] 

Artoo's words as he came along had Ahsoka sliding her hand up onto his dome, taking strength from his confidence and loyalty. "Okay, Artooey."

++++

Ahsoka had settled, back to the bulkhead, forehead and montrals pressed in a particular spot on Artoo's body so his circuits didn't whirr too loudly in her hearing. Padmé was copiloting, and they had taken a small hyperspace jump at Ahsoka's request.

Her fear was growing all over again. Was it because of the nightmare facing these two people she loved? Or was there some malign influence affecting her, as it shadowed the Seers. She'd had a couple of small visions in her life, much as others had, but been encouraged to pursue other strengths.

{For Rex. For Fives. For Tup. For all those named and spent cruelly,} she murmured in Mando'a, building up her own confidence by putting it on terms of protecting her men, her brothers, those she served and led.

Anakin heard her murmur, but more, he could feel her uncertainty, her fear, and he reached back with the Force to press against her shoulder. He had faith in her, knew that despite her fears of sticking her feet in her mouth, she would tell him nothing but the truth -- no matter how hard that was for him to hear. He'd been quiet for the ride and the start of the jump, trying to rebuild his defenses, calm himself to the point where he could hear what she had to say without coming so close to losing control again. 

He was the strongest and best kriffing Jedi in a dozen generations, _why_ did he struggle so much with anger? Why was there so much of it in him, suddenly blazing up even when he thought he had it under control? 

Padmé listened to the musical language, hearing names she knew, but not the words. That was something she knew she needed to work on; the language of the brave men serving was one that she wished to know.

Finally, Ahsoka moved away from Artoo, mostly so she could lock her arms around her knees, a tiny little ball of Togruta worry.

"Master, you know I love you? That I would never, ever say anything to hurt you if I could avoid it? That there is a huge part of me that severely just wants to walk up to the problem and try to fight him myself, just to make him reveal who he is?"

Anakin turned his head, saw the way she was gathered in on herself, and frowned worriedly. "Angel, can you -- " 

"Anakin," Padmé said, affectionately amused and exasperated at once, "get back there already. I'll join you as soon as the orbit is stabilized." 

"Okay," he answered, and moved to go to his padawan, settling down on the floor next to her, turned towards her, hand settling on one knee. "I know, Snips. I know -- and _no_ , that is one thing you are **not** doing, I am **not** losing you again do you hear me?!" 

She nodded at him, but worried at the corner of her mouth with a sharp tooth, before meeting his eyes. Even then she shied a little, flicking her gaze away and back again.

"So I know who the Sith in the Senate is," she blurted out. "And his plan, or at least enough of it to fix things… maybe."

"You _what_?" Anakin asked, staring at her, hungry, anticipatory focus curling through him. If she knew who the mysterious, quasi-mythical 'Darth Sidious' was, they could actually **end this** and see their men freed, see them into real lives of their own, be done with the kriffing wasteful travesty this war was... "You know -- _who_ , Snips?" 

She drew in a deep breath, her lekku fading to a washed out gray and going still. "Someone you trust, someone everybody trusts…. and the only person who can give an order to the men that bypasses their Jedi."

His Snips looked wrecked, even before she started to speak -- and then she actually _did_ , and he was shaking his head just after her first words. There weren't more than three politicians he trusted. One of them was next to him and Ahsoka obviously trusted her, so who could it possibly be? And _no_ -one was universally trusted, not this far into the war, except... 

No, it couldn't be. He shook his head again, but as she said those last words, the ridiculous, asinine thought tried to rise up again. But that was impossible, completely ridiculous. All of the Council were regularly with the Chancellor, there was no way _he_ could be -- 

"I don't know how he hides, Master. But… you've known him as long as you've been at the Temple, right?" Ahsoka asked in a gentle, but obviously terrified voice. "The Chancellor?"

Padmé's head all but whipped around before she remembered she needed to stabilize orbit before she could deal with this. Her mind, however, was trying hard to deny the accusation, because… because she didn't think anyone could be that villainous, and worse, that she had aided and abetted the rise to power.

Anakin shook his head, hot anger flashing up in the back of his mind at the accusation of his closest, best friend -- but this was _his padawan_ , his Snips, his brave, bright, devoted almost-daughter/almost-sister, and she was terrified. 

Terrified of _him_ , when she'd laughed in Grievous's face, thought nothing of insulting Ventress to hers, and -- 

He was breathing too quickly, filling his lungs and blood with oxygen as though he were expecting a fight, when the only people here were his padawan and his wife and Artoo, three of the people he trusted most in the world. He made himself stop, made himself breathe, and felt his wife's shock. She was trying to deny it, too, and that was soothing... except for the part where his padawan had been through an ordeal that ended with her in a room as tightly secured as a place could be on Coruscant without tripping a single alarm. 

He should believe her. He'd promised he would listen. But it was so ridiculous! 

...was it really? The part of him that the war had honed to razor-sharpness asked, a shift of his focus that drew his attention towards events that rearranged themselves in his mind like a tac-map shifting from flat to tactical tri-D. 

"Anakin… you know I have been fighting a lot of more recent bills, extending more power to his office," Padmé said in a forced, tight voice. "I would prefer to ask Bail or Mon to check my mental map of the bills, but … not even the Banking Guild could be gaining nearly as much from the war as he is, if power is his goal.

"He hasn't said that he'll set the burden down after the crisis on the last two bills that passed."

Ahsoka's eyes darted toward her, hopeful that the calm words would support whatever theory was in Skyguy's head. She tightened her grip around her own legs, trying to be as small as she could. Idly, a memory of hiding under the cribs in the creche came to mind, and she half-wished she was still capable of such things.

Anakin blinked, turning his head towards his wife at the sound of her voice, considering. The Chancellor had mentioned trouble in the Senate, explaining why he needed to be able to cohesively direct the war effort, grumbling at the trouble. But if his wife was part of that opposition... he trusted Padmé. He hadn't known the Chancellor had stopped promising he would let go of the powers he was granted by the Senate (too much power for any one being), and a few minutes ago he wouldn't have believed it... but Ahsoka, Rex, and Artoo were three more people he trusted. 

Trusted to have his back, to fight for him, to watch for the angles he couldn't see... 

No, no it wasn't possible, it _couldn't_ be possible, the Chancellor was his closest friend! He would never, could never -- 

Why not? 

He looked back at his padawan, his Snips, student he was so proud of, and his fingers pressed into his temples, as confusion and pain hammered through his mind. 

Ahsoka cleared her mind of the fear plaguing it, locking it down, and let go of her knees to turn and reach for him. Her long fingers settled on either side of his face as she leaned in, bringing her forehead to his.

"I'm not the best at deep meditation, Master, but I think… I think I can try and reach the dark spots in your mind. If you will let me."

He looked at her, studying her bright blue eyes, the vibrant rust hue of her face, the markings on her cheeks. His Snips, his padawan, he trusted her --  
\-- but should he, with this? She'd be horrified if she saw -- saw Mom, saw -- He couldn't let her know how scared he was, how much what they called him was a lie, that -- 

"I -- Ahsoka, I -- "

She stroked his cheek gently. "You're the only one who believed in me within the Order. I believe in you. No matter what. But we can't win, can't save the men, save Padmé, unless we undo what's been done to you.

"And I know he's done things to you. Because of what I saw. What I know. Because, Skyguy? You love with all your heart, and to make you hurt someone you love would take a Sith's tricks inside your head."

"Ani, listen to her. Let her help you," Padmé said, finally able to come and sit on the decking near them. "Her love is as unconditional as mine; I know it! She'll understand."

He reached out an arm for his wife, leaning into Ahsoka's hand, trying to build a shield of her love and Padmé's against the cacophony of panic and fear and confusion trying to rise up in him. He listened to their words, to _them_ , and 'we can't win, can't save the men, save Padmé' suddenly made his course entirely clear. He didn't care what happened to him, but he would do anything to save the lives of his people. His men counted on him to defend them from the Dark Side that they couldn't see to fight, Padmé was the strongest woman he knew but helpless against the Force. 

What difference did what happened to him make, if they were safe? 

"Okay, Snips," he answered, completely resolved despite the murmur in the back of his mind that he couldn't do this. It was still difficult to get the words out, for some reason. "Let's do this." 

"Breathe with me," Ahsoka said, an echo of early lessons in the creche, as an Initiate, even as his padawan. She reached for the steadying calm of the Daughter, knew that power within her could expose the darkness, and trusted in her beloved Master to be able to undo the harm that had been crafted in his mind.

The training bond surged, and opened more fully, letting her have a place inside Anakin's thoughts and memories, though she tried hard to only seek the dark places. A presence hovered at the edges, trying to shield the Chosen One on a path he was not meant to walk.

{Be gone, my Brother, for the path You have chosen is the end of all.}

{My choice is destruction, rather than defeat,} the Son snarled back.

The Daughter smiled. {But he chose otherwise, when you tried to claim one of the three.} With that, She turned her power against the Son, and pushed Him far enough away for the two Force users to actually reach the trouble in Anakin's mind.

Anakin had half-felt that, only vaguely understood it, but he was fairly certain Snips had a better idea of what had just happened than he did. //Snips?// he asked across the bond between them -- so deep, he was letting her in so deep -- //what just happened? And what do you need me to do?//

Ahsoka had glimpsed it, and it helped, to know the Daughter had been right. //Mortis. Leftovers from Mortis.// She could see, small bruises in the mindscape around her. //These places, Master. We need to look at them, try and remove the ones that are not because you freely chose to make those choices.//

Padmé had felt something, a flash of shadow and light, but both of her family members were breathing evenly, forehead to forehead, touching as much as was needed to strengthen the bond for this.

Anakin shivered at the mention of that place, but Snips sounded steady, and she was the one he'd nearly lost there. So if she could be calm, he would. //Snips... this is -- it's going to be... ugly. I... some of the things I've done -- // 

He could see where she was looking, places where his mental landscape was... damaged, somehow. All he wanted to do was run. But running wouldn't save his men, wouldn't protect Padmé, wouldn't do anything but prove him a coward. 

So he turned towards one, squaring his jaw to face it. 

//Skyguy? I don't care what **you** did. I care what that kriffing monster may have done **to** you.// She flooded his mind with her unconditional love, and it made the damaged places so much easier to find. She moved toward one, touching it, opening the memory of Palpatine asking Anakin if he really thought Obi-Wan knew the best course for him. Her teeth bared in the real world, anger flashing through her for the willful sabotage of that relationship.

Padmé worried at the feral expression, but she could not help, only keep contact with Anakin to preserve his sanity the only way she knew how.

Anakin snarled, low in his throat, his hands flexing tight for a moment. He remembered that... he'd been about ten, with a bare start of a padawan braid. He'd been lonely, feeling keenly how different he was from the other younglings, struggling with rules he didn't understand and Obi-Wan only repeated instead of explaining. He'd defended his Master then, as he always did, but it had made him doubt. 

And made him more inclined to toe the lines when he could be seen, obey because it was expected any time he could be seen, and keep his confusions to himself. To himself and to the Chancellor, when he had time to listen. 

//Obi-Wan should have explained better, should have listened more, but… this made you pull away,// Ahsoka said. //It's not good.// She focused on the memory, willing the faint compulsion on the Chancellor's words to show itself. //See?//

~I am your friend, you will listen to me…~ was under the sympathetic questioning.

//The kriff I will!// Anakin retorted with a hiss, and he struck at that like he would at Ventress trying to get into his mind, trying to force it away -- 

\-- and his mindscape rocked dizzyingly, as though he'd struck the web of an energy spider, other places suddenly sickeningly jarred, fragments of memory swirling in a dizzying whirl around them. 

//Oooh...// Ahsoka held tightly to her own identity, and to Anakin in the swirl. //Oops, and sorry?// she offered, for setting off that reaction.

She wanted him well, and that was going to hurt, but it didn't mean she liked it at all!

//Nnn -- not your fault, Snips,// Anakin answered, focusing on her, on now, trying to center himself again, to find a solid place to work from. //It... well, I'd say that proves your theory kriffing solidly!// 

Now there was a different anger trying to rise, targeted and focused on the Chancellor -- but that wouldn't help right now. A direct attack on that compulsion (so subtle, so easy to miss) had only mapped out other places it had had an effect (or been reinforced), not damaged it. So how did they get rid of it? 

Ahsoka felt that wondering, the need to find a plan, and she spread herself over the web he had shaken, reaching out to make the compulsions glow more, a guide to where they were. The memories she had to see were varied and many, but she didn't shy from them, didn't condemn him.

She ached on his behalf, but she never saw him as less than the man she looked up to in so many ways.

//Follow me, break them. It will take time… but we can do this. Me showing, and you rejecting.//

//Point is _my_ job,// Anakin protested... but she was right. Somehow, she was more able to find them... and he would push them away. Weaken them one by one, then attack the net of it. He took a slow, full breath, and plunged deeper. 

+++ 

Padmé had grown more concerned as the time went by and Ahsoka's colors faded, while both were visibly sweating. She went and acquired water for them, as well as high-protein food, but could do little more than watch and wait with Artoo chirring at her sometimes.

Then Ahsoka sagged, falling back from Anakin, before slumping onto the bulkhead behind her, breathing no longer the steady meditation rhythm but ragged and air-starved.

Anakin fell sideways, gasping for air as he tried once, then again, to open his eyes. There beside him, arm half around him, was his Angel, and he moved just enough to bury his face against her hip before the sobs started to claw their way out of his throat. 

It felt as though he had just experienced his entire life again at enhanced speeds, everything -- every fight with Obi-Wan, every argument, his mother's death and what he'd done, things during the war -- now seen without the haze of the. The _Sith's_ influence. His arms snaked around her waist, clinging, as once again he lost everything in tears and her embrace. 

She held him, petting his back and hair. Softly, she spoke. "It's going to be better, Ani. We're going to get through this. You're not alone. You have us. You have me, always and forever."

Ahsoka smiled at that, then got to where she could drink and eat.

He barely heard her, but he could feel her love and support, her steady focus and determination, and he burrowed closer. 

It felt like he wept forever, for hours, before he finally went still and quiet, just breathing, the pain finally ebbing enough (with her support) to let him stop. He felt like he'd just fought three ground campaigns back to back and another gundark on top of it... 

"There, Ani." Padmé stroked his hair, noting Ahsoka had closed her eyes and was possibly asleep against the bulkhead now that she had eaten two protein bars and killed her water. "I wish I could help you more, my love."

"You already have," Anakin whispered, twisting to roll over so that he could look up at her. Moving made him think of his padawan and he lifted his head, looking for her. She was asleep on the decking, and he nodded to himself before he looked to his wife's face. "I -- kriffing hells, Angel, I want to just go put a lightsaber through him..."

"Your lightsaber, my blaster… I'm betting you will not be able to stop Ahsoka from adding her two," Padmé said in a voice that told him she'd been contemplating violence. "But that would not necessarily show the Senate what he has done, so we can undo his laws, the bills pushed through by his allies. And that is what I must see done, rather than risk further harm by anyone he's hidden away and trained to take advantage of the chaos that will erupt when we reveal him." She smiled sadly down at him. "Knowing is one thing. Now we have to do so much. And… I worry over you, because that looked horrible, Ani."

Anakin listened, nodding slowly, still resting with his head in her lap. "I know, Angel. I know I can't, and why -- I just _want_ to." 

That his peace-loving wife sounded so edged, that she wanted to commit the same kind of violence he did... was soothing and sobering at the same time. He pressed his nape back against her leg, and reached up to stroke her cheek lightly. "I -- it was. All," his voice cracked, and he tried to say it steadily this time. "All these years, all the times I went to him with my troubles, that he always made time for me.... it was all so he could lay compulsions on me. Subtler than straight mind tricks, just little influences." 

He laughed bitterly, the sound ragged in his own ears. "I say 'just'. When they were all nudges towards my doubts, temper, arrogance, disobedience... I want Obi-Wan." 

He _hadn't_ meant to say that, let alone have it sound as wistful as a feverish youngling in the creche. 

"Then we'll comm him to join us. On Naboo? I need to set up the plans to get your men cared for, and we can say it is to follow up on intel that suggests the bunker was not the only thing the Separatists put on our planet," Padmé said easily enough.

She ached for him, knew he had to be so shaken. It was no surprise to her that he wanted Obi-Wan. She remembered his tempers around the elder man, and had been puzzled by them. Now? Now, she could see it as sabotage.

He nodded after a moment. That made good sense, and it would let them have a start at protecting the men, too. Also give him reason to call the _Resolute_ **to** him and soon. Without his having to go back to Coruscant. 

He was so tired. More than thirst or hunger, though both of those were present, he was just... exhausted. His eyes slid closed, and he let them stay that way, breathing her scent and listening to her breathing. "You'll comm him?" 

"Of course, Ani." She stroked his hair. "You go to sleep. I'll comm him, and -- if I can find an opening -- ask him to speak to Admiral Yularen and Captain Rex."

He nodded slightly, lifting his body just enough to let her slip out from under his head, and stretched back out. He'd slept worse places than the _Twilight_ 's decking. She rose and got her body stretched out briefly, then went to the console, sliding the panel to seal the cockpit before she did, to contact Obi-Wan directly on the _Negotiator_. She was a persuasive woman, and she would convince him to bring both his unit and Ani's to Naboo.

+++++

She had used the time between the sergeant answering her comm and Obi-Wan actually reaching it to gather up a little more calm, wrapping it around her. She knew he'd gone back out to his troops as quickly as he could, so it was no surprise that it took a few moments. "Master Kenobi," she said, dipping her head in greeting to the holo. 

"Senator Amidala," he said, bowing his own head. "How may I be of service to you?" The stress and strain of the last ten-day was evident, even in his holo.

"I hope you haven't yet found a force of Separatists to assail," Padmé replied, looking at his small image and focusing on his eyes, "because you are gravely needed on Naboo -- or will be in approximately thirteen hours -- and your men will need my planet's resources not long after." 

Obi-Wan considered that phrasing, appraising her. Had she found something related to the maneuvering that had put Barriss so far over the edge? Did she have evidence that could better explain how the insanity of that trial had ever come to be?

"The 212th is ever ready to serve the Republic's largest proponent of peaceful negotiation, milady," he told her after that long search.

She smiled at him, relieved that he hadn't balked or argued, and nodded once, gravely. The instant response left her without an opening to ask him to see to getting Admiral Yularen moving, unfortunately. "I had no doubt of that, Master Jedi. I will be most glad to see you when you arrive. My regards to your Commander." 

"I will pass them along." Obi-Wan studied her a moment more. "Should I suggest this mission needs the _Resolute_ along?" he asked, face blank of anything that might be suspicion. "I am certain they could use an excuse to move on from recent events."

"I am certain they do, as well," she agreed, "and that is a fine idea. I have some reason to believe we didn't find everything the Separatists' _darker_ allies left behind." 

Obi-Wan grimaced slightly. "I will tell Admiral Yularen we are following up on Separatist leads then. Captain Rex will be able to command for such a thing, even if the legion is… simmering."

Padmé nodded her agreement. "I think you will have no problem finding the ship I'm aboard, when you reach Naboo? Force be with you, Master Kenobi." 

"May you stay safe within it as well, Senator Amidala," he said, signing off. 

Padmé shut off the console and reached for the navicomputer, calmly setting their course out of this system and for her own. The day she couldn't do that even half asleep was the day they should put _her_ on a pyre. Hopefully, the feeling of hyperspace would keep Anakin at rest through most of the trip. 

+++

While the two capital ships waited in orbit, two smaller ships came down, one from each vessel. The _Resolute's_ fighter landed first, but Obi-Wan's two-man ship was just behind them. Rex, Cody, and Obi-Wan were all relieved, in their own ways, to see what ship they had rendezvoused at, even if the location made Obi-Wan tense a little.

Anakin had felt his Master drop out of hyperspace, coming fully alert once again -- Padmé had been insistent that he rest as much as he could, despite the round of screaming nightmares halfway through the trip -- and putting himself together in the intervening time. He came down off the _Twilight_ just after they had landed, and seeing that it was only his Master, Rex, and Cody was a relief so powerful that he almost couldn't breathe past it. 

With these three men, he could actually be honest, now. No one to pretend in front of, no one that would ever be a threat to the _aliit_ he claimed as his own. "Didn't anyone ever tell you to get _out_ of the sun whenever you can?" he called, needing them to come to him. 

"Sir, all due respect, but we prefer to catch the sun when we can, seeing as Kamino's primary was merely a rumor," Rex said, forcing a lighter tone than he actually felt.

Obi-Wan gave a small, tight smile for that humor, remembering that he had been drenched for far longer than he ever cared to be. That ride from Kamino to Geonosis had been so unpleasant. "Hello, Anakin," he said softly, as Cody took up the point off his left shoulder, and Rex walked closer to his own general.

Anakin snorted, shaking his head as Rex's words brought a moment's smile to his lips. "Master," he said, then had to agree with Rex, saying, "Point, there." He reached out when Rex was close enough, grabbing onto his shoulder. Reassure his Captain, his good right hand, first, then he could let himself cling to the reassurance _he_ needed. 

"It's going to be all right, Rex," he told him, and for the first time in a long time, he was actually sure of that. "There's somebody aboard waiting to see you, matter of fact. Be up to brief you in a minute." 

Rex looked startled, skeptical even… but it had been a hard few months. He went to the ship, going on up into it on his General's word. 

Obi-Wan gestured for Cody to move on toward the ship as he faced Anakin. "I do hope you mean who I think you mean," he told Anakin in regards to who Rex was going to.

Anakin nodded at Cody in passing before he looked to his Master again, one corner of his mouth quirking up as he held his left hand in front of him at Ahsoka-montral height, then nodded. He was listening for the faint sound of boots on decking, and as soon as he did hear it he _moved_ , dropping his head down against Obi-Wan's startled throat and shoulder, latching on as tightly as he could. //Master,// he sent across their so-ravaged bond, desperate for him to hear. // _My_ Master.// 

There was a deeply startled moment, an instinctive move toward defenses, then a complete surrender to the touch of Anakin's mind against his own. Obi-Wan's hands came up, arms curving to hold the younger man close.

//Anakin?// he sent, questing for answers as to this sudden show of … need and attachment. That it was an attachment he did not protest… well, Obi-Wan had been shaken hard in his belief in the Order recently.

//My Master,// Anakin replied, calming down a little more as Obi-Wan's mind and body both relaxed, as Obi-Wan pulled him closer and let him be honest, let him show how shaken he was. //There's so much I'm sorry for, Master, but almost all of it comes down to this: I should have listened to you about -- about the... the Chancellor.//

Even (especially?) mind-to-mind, that had been agonizing to say, and getting the title out when he wanted to rage and denounce him had taken an effort of will. 

It took a further moment, as Obi-Wan gathered all the impact of that, the pain, the betrayal… and then he was holding on with the Force and his arms, giving Anakin a solid wall of support. //I am so, so sorry to learn this, Anakin, for your sake. I should have followed up on my distrust of his interest in you.//

Anakin leaned into that hold, letting his Master support him, holding on across the bond and with his arms alike. //...maybe you couldn't, like I couldn't see what he was doing to me... to us,// he replied, quiet, as he burrowed in a little closer, somehow. 

//This is likely true, but I do not like it one bit. I was meant to guide and protect you!// Obi-Wan pointed out firmly. //The question is, how did this all come about?//

//My padawan went time-travelling and then dropped herself into Padmé's locked and shielded chambers in the middle of the night,// Anakin answered, entirely honestly. //She found out a lot in that obscenity of a future, before she came back.// 

"Excuse me, but say again?" Obi-Wan questioned, certain that had all been Basic, even if it was completely unintelligible.

Anakin snorted, getting a moment's laughter out of that surprise. He considered replying in Huttese and decided against it. "Ahsoka got herself thrown about a quarter-century into the future, which was basically one giant galactic hell. Once she'd learned what she needed to, to _stop it_ , she fell back into our time. Artoo's recordings show her literally falling out of midair." 

"That's… something different." Obi-Wan took a deep breath and considered all of what it meant. All the suffering, all the deaths, the sacrifices of their loyal men… it was all for nothing but one man's power gain, manipulating both sides of the war.

The same rage he'd felt on this world some thirteen and more years prior came back in full measure, glowing space cold-white in the bond with an intensity Anakin had not realized Obi-Wan could reach.

The feeling of that rage, the blaze of it, was a shock, but Anakin leaned into it rather than away, reassured. He'd been able to feel most of what his Master was thinking, and as he'd come to those same conclusions, he welcomed that fury in the man he respected most in the galaxy. //I know, Master, I know... but now _we_ know, and we **will** bring him down.// 

Obi-Wan had to content himself with a sharp nod at that, seeing the faces of his men, the poor natives of worlds they had liberated… or lost. He finally forced himself to breathe again, then made himself use the proper rhythm to purge his emotions into the Force… even though that rage could never be truly sent away.

Anakin stayed tucked close, breathing in that same pattern, waiting until his Master felt... calmer, if far from calm, before he spoke aloud. "But that has to come second to protecting our _vod'e_ from what he has planned for them... and the Order." 

"Anakin, I think I want a stiff drink before you say anything more. Because our men have already suffered enough, and if I must hear more, I want anesthetic." Obi-Wan indicated the ship… just as he was certain in his soul that Cody was unconscious somehow. That made him pull away from Anakin to go aid his Commander.

Anakin caught hold of him, refusing to let go -- he'd felt Rex go down, and knew what that had to mean. "Cody's _all right_ , Master. Just asleep, just like Rex is. Ahsoka would never hurt them, you _know_ that. We'll grab alcohol on the way to the surgical center Padmé's picked " 

Obi-Wan rebelled just a moment, flash of fear for Cody that ran deeper than mere camaraderie, flickers of faces that had been lost that had been his loves, before he trusted in Anakin.

"As you will, my brother."

Anakin nodded, filed that for later, and headed for the _Twilight_ quickly, bringing Obi-Wan along with him so that he could see for himself that Cody was just fine. Once aboard, he looked for his padawan's eyes and demanded, " _Seriously_ , Snips?!" 

Ahsoka gave him that defiant, no-apology look right back. "Rexter was near to fainting anyway with shock and Force only knows when the last time he ate a full meal was. It just was the right moment! Couldn't knock him out without handling Cody, and could you help me get them both actually under a knockout? They're both pretty strong-willed."

"She is your padawan," Obi-Wan said. He took in the fact she was carrying her lightsabers, wearing her silka beads when he knew she had rejected the Order. He didn't say anything, though, as it was her right to choose.

Anakin sighed, growling low in his throat at the idea of Rex being in that kind of shape, of his Captain not taking care of himself, and he looked at his Master. "You take care of Cody, Master. Trust me, and don't let him wake up until we've protected them both." 

That said, he moved to Rex, crouching down beside his Captain and laying his will over Ahsoka's fainter 'sleep' command. 

Obi-Wan crouched beside his commander, resting a hand on his shoulder, as both men were in their fatigues, not armor, at his request. He pushed his own will over the simpler suggestion, and insured Cody would not come awake until it was a safer time.

"I still want alcohol first," he said even as he wondered why Ahsoka clearly saw a threat in the men… to them and to the Jedi. She was radiating it, but Obi-Wan pushed that away to pick up his commander and carry him to a more suitable resting place.

"Yes, Master," Anakin agreed, and picked Rex up, moving him to a more comfortable place as well. 

+++ 

It was amazing, Anakin thought as he set the _Twilight_ down inside the hospital's restricted hangar, what his wife's 'requests' could accomplish on her homeworld. 

Ahsoka looked all around, Force reaching out to inspect every single beings she could sense… worried that they would be betrayed at this crucial juncture. However, Padmé had the trust of her people, and their loyalty, so this would be safe.

"Should have brought Kix, too, but you didn't know that. Catch him in the first batch, with Helix," she said, thinking ahead to the scope of what needed to be done.

Anakin let the ramp down, and moved to the back to join his Master in watching the two nurses with floating stretchers come aboard. He watched them as intently as Ahsoka was, defensive of the unconscious men, and left the ship with them -- Ahsoka, his Master, and his wife right beside him. 

One of his wife's handmaidens was also there, a bag over her shoulder that she handed to Padmé before disappearing again. Quickly, they were in a softly-colored preparation room, with a woman, a man, and an analysis droid waiting. The nurses shifted the stretchers to waiting medical beds and left. 

"Greetings, Madam Senator," the woman said, "your comm was... mysterious, to say the least, but here we are as you asked. How can we help the men that saved us?" 

Ahsoka felt a surge of warmth for the woman at that. "I actually can help best with that." She moved to Rex's side, fingers marking out where she had seen the small scar on his head in the future. "The enemy planted a time-bomb in our men, right about here. It's a chip, supposedly an inhibitor chip. They must come out, and either a way to deactivate them all found… or we're going to need to know all the surgical details so we can spread out through the legions to aid the rest of the men."

Obi-Wan paled, but Ahsoka was speaking so confidently. What kind of bomb? Anakin had mentioned the Order in relation to whatever affected the men. Anakin, for his part, moved to his wife to get one of the bottles from the bag over her shoulder and take it to his Master. 

"You're sure that's the spot?" the man asked, even as he got a scanner.

"Yes. I saw a man who had been operated on, had his removed. The scar was from here to here," she added, using a second finger to mimic the distance.

Anakin slid the bottle into his Master's hand, silently brushing, //We did get it for you, at least?// across their link. 

Obi-Wan nodded, taking the bottle and drinking a small swallow of it. His eyes never left Cody, though, once Ahsoka had explained.

He would lose Cody too?

No, no he would not! Ahsoka was here, apparently trying to stop that, and he felt so grateful to her for it.

"We'll have to trace how it ties into the nervous system, then once we have these two out," the woman said, "we can plug them into simulations, and determine if there is a less invasive, rapid manner of making them inert."

"Thank you, milady," Ahsoka said. "After all the men have given us, saved us from, I can't let this plot come to fruition and steal them away from who they are."

The man was working with the scanner, holding it over Rex's temple, and he made a quiet noise. "Found something, sure enough... small, but nothing that belongs in a human being. Uh, ma'am? You're certain it's safe to simply remove?" 

Anakin stayed at his Master's side, pushing away all of his own distress to try to support him instead. Cody was so precious to his Master, in ways he hadn't realized... all the more reason to save him in this first round. 

"The man I spoke to experienced no complications of it being gone. So yes, please," Ahsoka answered. 

Obi-Wan let that certainty in Ahsoka soothe him; Cody would be fine, be safe from the future ills that would have befallen him.

The woman hummed for a moment, then nodded to Ahsoka and moved to look at the scanner and its results. "It appears to be placed where it should be easy to remove," she said, "which I find... somewhat odd, but very much a relief. We can do this, milady, and even quickly."

Anakin breathed a soft sigh of relief and stayed close to his Master, trying to be a soothing, steadying presence.

"Good." For a moment, there was far more maturity in the lines of the lekku and face, and it just happened that she was still closer to Rex, still looking at him, but then Ahsoka pulled back into her memories of her life lived so far, not those false trails within a future that never would happen now.

"It would be helpful if we cleared the room," the man said apologetically.

"One of us must stay," Ahsoka said firmly. "And it should be me, for violating their autonomy." She looked at her master for help because Obi-Wan was opening his mouth to protest.

Anakin flicked a glance at her, his hand spreading on his Master's back, //Ahsoka knows the most about what's going on, Master... and she's in enough distress about what she had to do. Let her protect them, yes?// 

//Very well. When did she grow up so much, Anakin?// A feeling of being too old for all of this accompanied that protest before they all withdrew, leaving Ahsoka to be witness to what happened. The medical technicians actually respected her even more for that commitment to their heroes, understanding that she felt responsible.

//Probably about the time -- no, I'm sorry, Master,// Anakin cut himself off, moving to find the closest waiting room and settle in. He took the middle of a couch and was relieved when his wife settled on his right and his Master on his left, where he could easily reach them both. //Also, stop that, you're not old.//

Obi-Wan let out a snort, and Padmé leaned around Anakin to look at him. "Anakin, telling me I'm not old, when he's added at least twenty years to my age with his stunts through the years."

"To hear him tell it, Master Kenobi, you are not all that peaceful to keep up with either," she defended. "But, either way, you certainly don't look old to me."

"Thank you, Padmé," Anakin replied, grateful to have some backup with Obi-Wan, "and no, 'peaceful' does not apply. What do you need to know at the moment, Master, and what can wait for Ahsoka's first-hand report?" 

Obi-Wan contemplated the drink he had been given, then looked back at the surgical suite. He downed quite a bit of the alcohol in the next moment, and Padmé sympathized with him, even as she appreciated seeing a more human side of him.

"What do the chips do?"

Anakin had spent a while of his time being awake harassing Ahsoka for more details, so he was able to answer that. "Take away their ability to do anything but obey a certain set of 'contingency' orders, when 'correctly' activated, by overriding their will and using their bodies, from what Ahsoka said." 

His fury at that burned deep and cold in his chest, but he held it under control. 

Obi-Wan's rage cut through their bond again, before he could wrestle it down into his center once more. "Abominable."

"Yes!" Padmé said, wrapping her fingers in Anakin's to give him comfort. "It is the perfect trap for the Order, though. Much as taking command of them eroded Jedi moral standings, the bond shown between most of you and your men would make their actions under the chip stand out to the public as validation of the accusations against the Jedi. Because if they were able to turn on the Jedi… the Jedi had to have been horrible, right?"

Anakin hissed, even as he nodded, but he had to catch hold of Obi-Wan with his other hand as his Master's eyes went blank. Padmé had said more than maybe she should have, moved too quickly, but... then again it was best to get the brutal truths out quickly. 

"It's not going to happen, Master," he murmured. "We're not going to give him that opening." 

"No, we are not," Obi-Wan said with a fierce fire in his voice and heart. "The Order needs reformation, but we are **not** lost!"

Padmé felt completely justified in her prodding; she needed the elder man to stay emotionally active and expressing it, as it would help Anakin. She'd heard too many rants on the subject of Obi-Wan's reserve and calm.

"No," Anakin agreed, that ferocity a comfort, something he could lean against and be reassured by, "we aren't. But even if I thought it was beyond saving, I wouldn't let this happen to our men. As you said, they've been through more than enough already, without _this._ " 

Obi-Wan looked at Anakin, then nodded once. "Our salvation is in our men, Anakin. They have taught us so many lessons in compassion and the strength of emotional connections."

Padmé tipped her head, considering that. She had long respected the Jedi, but listening to Anakin had made her aware they had severe flaws. She considered all of the Vod'e and Jedi interactions she had witnessed, and then nodded.

"I think I see what you mean, even as an outsider, Master Kenobi."

Anakin nodded slow agreement with that, his arm slipping behind his Master's back to hold on. "I'd have to agree with that," he said, though he hadn't needed those lessons the way the others had -- well. Not in the same ways. He was obscenely terrible at even considering letting go of those he loved, but that was a different story. 

"From what I got from Snips, once Sidious -- " he shuddered, and clung to them both, forcing out what he had to say, "once he ... had me, he declared all other Jedi traitors... and almost the entire Order died in the space of a few hours."

Obi-Wan shuddered violently and took more of his drink, even as Padmé leaned more into her husband. The idea of that kind of wide-scale execution was vile beyond belief, and yet the Senator was seeing so many ways that just learning of it had reshaped Ahsoka into a new facet of herself.

"We protect them, then we tackle that filth," Obi-Wan said with fervent determination.

Anakin nodded, holding his wife closer as he leaned against his Master. "Yes. We will. I know we will." 

//She didn't... encounter the me-then,// he said to his Master across their bond, //not past feeling him for a moment. And that she... didn't want to talk about. I -- // 

//Shh, Anakin. You will be right beside us, protecting the men, and guiding the Order that needs to exist,// Obi-Wan said, shifting to better get his arm around Anakin in a comforting, warm embrace. //You have my faith and support, as always, my former-padawan. And you have a very strong partner beside you as well.//

His Master's arms and mind wrapped around him, steady and comforting, warm... and he could feel the faith running across that link. Faith he'd doubted so often, belief he'd been _certain_ Obi-Wan would never feel in him, and he twisted to lift his head and stare at his Master, letting go of Padmé in his shock, hope, and surprise. //...Master?// he asked, hesitant.

Obi-Wan frowned, meeting Anakin's eyes. He was dimly aware of Padmé pulling back to let them have privacy for whatever had just happened between them.

//Yes, Anakin?// He was confused by the hesitation, the feeling of Anakin not knowing how he felt. Why else had Obi-Wan kept him as padawan for ten years, fought against letting him go, when so many were knighted in fewer? He'd wanted to shape Anakin fully into his great potential, honed Anakin with love and care even despite the arguments they'd had, much as Qui-Gon had done for him.

//...you... you really...?// Why was _Obi-Wan_ confused? He was the one that was always so critical, never considered _anything_ he did really good enough, the -- 

\-- 'no, Skyguy' murmured from one of the warnings Snips had left on the places they'd attacked, 'that's not you'... 

Some of that came through clearly enough for Obi-Wan to shift and catch the back of Anakin's neck, pulling them to where he could rest his forehead on Anakin's in a gentle gesture of love and care. //My dear padawan, you did not know that I only wished to make you the best you could be?// he asked, his voice pained at that revelation. //It is the only way a master may love their padawan, Anakin… to sharpen and hone who they become.//

Anakin clung, moving obediently under his Master's hand, leaning against him willingly, holding on as he shook his head slightly. //No, I... I was used to not being good enough, but that didn't mean it was easy to take from you, too. I -- // That was an understatement, he'd _hated_ it, and lived for the moments he could actually get a moment of unqualified pride from the man that had both his fate (and so much of his heart) in his hands, rare as those were...

Obi-Wan's sudden stricken expression and deep mortification translated across the bond, and showed Anakin that his master had never considered that at all. //Anakin, my padawan… I never realized. It's an unspoken rule of life in the Temple that if a Master keeps their padawan past the usual length, it is because there is an Attachment. I'm sorry, that I never realized how you couldn't know this.//

Anakin shook his head, that stricken look and the shocked pain he could feel somehow sinking down into years of his real and manipulated pain and... soothing it. //I -- when I was just starting, it was easy to make you proud of me,// and oh, how he'd clung to that, //but... the older I got, the _better_ I got, the more it -- //

The more it had been impossible to get anything but critique, or backhanded compliments that left his skin and his psyche stinging with shame and fury he couldn't, mustn't show. 

//I never meant to hurt you,// Obi-Wan told him in a shamed, pained voice. Flickers of that very style of increasing critique being affection from his own master leaked through. //I have never not been proud of you, Anakin. I did wish to curtail your arrogance… but mostly, I just wanted you to grow even stronger.//

//The arrogance I've sort of got to give you, given the kriffing _Sith Master_ feeding it at every damned turn,// Anakin admitted unhappily, shifting to burrow more against his Master's body and cling, breathing shallowly.

Obi-Wan gave up on propriety then, looking at Padmé with one questioning eyebrow, which earned him a 'go on' wave. With that, he shifted his whole body to draw Anakin along his own body on the couch, as the woman moved to the other chair to give them room for it.

//Shh, my padawan, shh. It's not you, not anymore.//

Anakin was startled, but he felt Padmé's ease with it, his Master's wish/need to soothe how shaken he felt, and that let him move with it, twist and shift to plaster himself to his Master's body, forehead buried against his throat to hide his face. He clung, hard, letting that soothing croon soak in. He did not _want_ to start crying again, but he could feel it hovering. //My Master,// he murmured, holding on.

//Yes.// Obi-Wan reinforced the training bond they had not broken… it had been left in place by necessity of the brevity of Anakin's Knighting ceremony and then because it was far too useful when the pair needed to work in concert. Now, however, Obi-Wan took it and used it to truly give himself to Anakin, as an offering for all of his mistakes and failings, so that Anakin need never doubt him again.

Anakin made a soft, shocked noise as he realized what his Master -- his brother, dearest friend, teacher -- was doing with the Force, was doing with the connection between them. He was changing it, opening his end of it wider and deeper. Past the level of conscious communication, past the usual barriers held against emotion and emotional bleed-through, making the teaching-bond into something that would reveal Obi-Wan's very heart and soul to him if he but looked... //Master, I -- you...// he was overwhelmed, almost wanted to tell him to undo it, that trust too deep, too _much_... but he clung to it, too. Clung, and -- with what Ahsoka had done still so fresh, he could -- started to respond in kind. 

Obi-Wan let him, let that bond expand fully, baring his soul and past to his brother, his friend, his partner. He did not hide the parts he was ashamed of, did not hold back the depth of his emotional storms. Anakin could know him in all his flaws, and would never be more than a thought away.

//All that I can be, it is yours, my dearest Anakin,// Obi-Wan said so softly within the bond. 

Anakin curled up on him more protectively, arm snaking under him, as his -- his Obi-Wan, his _vod_ \-- gave him so much. He'd ridden the storm of his own life too recently to look deeply right now, but this was a kind of safety he had never even dreamed of. //I love you, brother. Everything my wife doesn't have, you hold -- and have for longer than she has.//

//Wife, is it?// There was gentle affection in the words, though, and an awareness that ran deep of how Anakin and Padmé were entwined. //I have loved you in many ways, Anakin, and that is not going to stop this side of the Living Force, I promise you.//

//Yes,// Anakin agreed at the quietly affectionate question, settling for having that full truth between them, //it is. Naboo custom... would not accept her having an un-bonded male lover, she said, when I asked.// He shrugged slightly, //So, we married. Not as though it changed anything about how I feel for her. 

//...did _you_ know there're bets on if we're sleeping together, among the _vod'e_?// he asked, curious, as they were discussing such things. 

Obi-Wan's amusement was quite clear. //I never placed my own bet; too close to the source, but I am aware that members of my unit did place them with Fives.// He settled a little more comfortably, closing his eyes as he let what they were settle inside him, a balm on much of his worry and unease.

Anakin shook his head, exasperated and amused all at once, and grumbled quietly, //Of all the things for them to be betting on. Ahsoka's sulking that she can't place a couple of her own, now that she has confirmation.// 

The question of if that was something Obi-Wan wanted was going to wait for later, right now he was going to stay with his _vod_ , and try to finish calming down all over again. He lifted his head after a few moments, looking to his wife's eyes to be certain she was all right. 

Padmé smiled warmly at him, a datapad in hand as she worked, sharing their space and wait, but not intruding more than she had to. They needed this too much.

//Well, she would buy into that part of their culture as strongly as the rest,// Obi-Wan said with amusement.

Padmé was fine, so he settled back down against his Master's chest and shoulder, just breathing. //Of course,// he agreed. //They adopted her, after all, and she is perfectly happy with that.//

Speaking of his padawan... he reached out with an edge of his attention, checking on her. 

She was completely focused on bearing witness, on lending healing energy, and ignoring his storm of emotions… mostly. At the touch on their bond, she sent a wave of gentle love and loyalty.

//Love you too,// he told her, smiling slightly. //How's it going?// 

//Good. Even as hard as their heads are,// she joked weakly. //I do hope they can find a way to disable the chips without doing this to our men.//

//With you there,// he agreed, picking up a few images in her 'this' that made him grateful to not be the one watching. //Sorry about whatever you picked up from me... Obi-Wan and I had some things to... clear up.//

//It's okay, Master. Just glad you two can fix it,// she sent sincerely.

// _So_ glad,// Anakin agreed, and drew back a little. //Much longer, do you think?// 

//Not much more. The chips are at least close to the skull? Probably why they are so at risk to either being destroyed, like in Wolffe, or set off early, like Rex told me happened with Tup.// She sent a strong distaste for that last. //We'll let Master Kenobi have Cody back, and I'll take care of Rex?// she asked, just to be sure.

//Definitely letting Obi-Wan have care of Cody, and I think you'd bite me if I didn't let you take care of Rex, so yes,// Anakin agreed, amused. 

Ahsoka made a playful biting impression at him, then grew serious. //He needs it, Master. I think he's been running himself hard with little care lately. I'm having words with Fives and Appo for letting him get this bad.//

//Mmm. Surprised you're not putting me on that list, too,// Anakin sent, but he was steady along the bond as he did. 

//Master, we have to take care of _you_ , so you don't actually get to be nursemaid. And I know what you've been doing, trying to clear my name.// She let a profound sense of gratitude go across for that. //Okay, need to pay attention to the people in here.//

//All right,// he agreed, and faded back from that connection to curl against Obi-Wan a little closer. "Ahsoka says not much longer," he said aloud, so that Padmé would know, too. 

They did _not_ have to take care of him, either. And he was supposed to protect the men he'd been entrusted with, if anyone ought to be on the hook for Rex abusing himself it was him... 

"Stop," Obi-Wan said, catching bits of that. "Our Captains and Commanders are laws unto themselves, and picked up most of our bad habits," he added.

"At least you see that they are bad habits?" Padmé teased lightly.

"Hey, he said that, not me," Anakin replied, picking his head up to look at his wife again. Possibly he should let Obi-Wan back up, but it was so comfortable to have actual _contact_ , to be held... 

She laughed softly. "And you should agree. I've heard about your exploits from your padawan."

"She has a point," Obi-Wan conceded, stroking a hand down Anakin's back.

Right, not moving until Snips called for them. He made a half-indignant, half-dismissive noise, and didn't particularly argue. If Rex was pushing himself too hard because he did, they might have a point. 

It did take a little more time, but the techs and droid left with an assurance that the pair were sleeping it off. Obi-Wan tensed to go in, but he had an Anakin to consider, torn between two responsibilities (and sets of emotions).

Anakin snorted in exasperation and moved off of his Master, pulling him up to his feet. "Go on, _vod_. You need to see him, and I'm all right." 

"Thank you, Anakin." Obi-Wan moved to go in, pausing inside the door at the sight of Ahsoka between the beds, one hand on each man. He felt the Force start flowing, building strongly around them, and wondered, as he could see the wound on Cody's head was quite small.

And Ahsoka had rarely been noted as exceptional in her healing classes, yet he thought that was what she was doing.

The stir of the Force had Anakin reaching for Padmé's hand and following his Master, frowning slightly as he felt the sheer magnitude of it and the... distance... in his padawan as she stood there working. He would not disturb her, not when she was manipulating so much, but... 

Obi-Wan could make out that she was pouring energy into both men, renewing them in ways he had not heard of within the Order. He hesitated to interrupt, looked at Anakin and noted he was holding himself still, so let it go.

Ahsoka had meant to get this done before they came in, but once she had started, she didn't dare stop, as she drew on the Daughter and memories of a life that she had not, would not live. She could not ever see herself apprenticing to Ventress, even as she knew she owed the woman a deep debt.

She just could not, would not let another minute be stolen from Rex, or Cody. When she could feel the damage was completely undone, reverting their aging to normal, she let go of that energy, of the Daughter's nature, and that life, for now, opening her eyes to see both her masters and the Senator watching her.

Anakin had reached for Obi-Wan when he realized Ahsoka wasn't going to be done for a bit, spreading his hand over the back of his neck and rubbing at the coiled tension, trying to soothe him. Whatever Ahsoka was doing, it wasn't something that would ever, could ever, hurt Rex and Cody.

Finally, slowly, she looked at them, her eyes limned with an almost glowing white before that faded away. "...you back with us, Snips?" 

"Yeah. Probably could eat a bantha if one got close, but I'm back to being just me," she assured him, even as she knew that probably made no sense to them. "Going to need some healers to poke at the Vod'e genetic code, find the aging thing," she said casually.

It wasn't casual enough, as Obi-Wan looked sharply at her. "Still?" At her sad nod, they all heard him say 'kriff', very sharply, under his breath.

Anakin growled, low in his throat, as 'the aging thing' made his jaw tighten. If the Kaminoans hadn't slagging ended the accelerated aging once the Vod'e reached maturity... feeding them to the predators of their own oceans kept sounding like a better and better idea. Maybe he could get in contact with some of their trainers, at least _one_ of them had to give a damn what happened to their boys... 

"We'll get it dealt with," he said, not sure which one of them he was most trying to reassure. "But if you're that hungry, I'll sit with Rex while you go get something to eat. Padmé, would you...?" 

"Of course, Ani." 

Ahsoka was reluctant to leave Rex, but knew better than to betray that where it could cause problems for him, or for Anakin, and obediently moved over to Padmé's side. "You know, it would be nice to actually see Naboo some day without it involving a med center," she said brightly, letting the older woman guide her.

When they were out of the room, Obi-Wan looked at Anakin. "Pray tell, how did our padawan just pull off a feat I do not think Master Che could have done? If I am understanding that she just changed their genetic code!"

Anakin sighed and shook his head slightly. "You saw her eyes, right?" Once he had Obi-Wan's nod, he went on. "I don't completely understand it yet, either, but it's... whatever we can't remember on Mortis, it... changed her. She has a -- connection," he finally had to settle on that word, "with the Light Side of the Living Force that's let her tap the life she lived there-then, and... a little more than that." 

"You're telling me that our padawan is connected to, or may even be, a Force deity?" Obi-Wan said in that calm, rational voice of his. "And I thought the day couldn't get odder."

"I don't think she _is_ , and I know she doesn't want to be," Anakin replied, "but definitely connected. Which's part of how she managed to show me where all of the compulsions and influences Sidious had left in my mind were. 

"That was an awful.... I don't know how long, actually." 

Obi-wan ran a hand over Anakin's hair lightly. "I am grateful to her, then, for helping that part of the problem be at an end." He then sat in one of the two uncomfortable chairs, watching his commander sleep, a small thread of his awareness having already checked to be certain it was a normal sleep.

"You and I _both_ ," Anakin agreed, before moving to run his hand gently over Rex's shoulder, assuring himself that his captain was safe, before he leaned back on the closest piece of wall to the bed.

+++

Rex heard sounds that weren't the _Twilight_ and snapped awake, his eyes opening as he slid a hand in towards his hip. His Deece was exactly where it should be, so was the other one, but he didn't know these walls, the berth under him, or -- 

"Hi," came a shy little voice that he did know, pretty well actually. One he had been certain he had lost until he saw her on the _Twilight_. "Sorry about knocking you out like that, and I'll apologize to Cody later, but I swear I had a good reason." 

Ahsoka was sitting in a chair near his berth, feet up with her, her arms around her legs and chin resting on her knees. It was a pose that obscured his view of her lekku, leaving him with one less guide on her mood.

If his Commander was there, he was safe enough, and he looked at the rest of the room -- including his sleeping brother and Master Kenobi a little more than an arm's-reach away -- until he thought he had a gauge of it. "...why're we in a hospital?" he asked, certain that they were. "And all right, I believe you." 

Not that he was happy about having been knocked out with a Jedi trick, but... she looked so small.

Ahsoka's breath caught in her chest for a long moment at that trust, so solid and so Rex… and it was a gift she would never abuse. "I got tipped off to a Sith trick. A piece of hardware they managed to get slipped into all of you that could have been used to turn you into real, mindless slaves," she said. "I wanted it out of you as fast as possible, and was afraid it might have failsafes if I actually told you both and asked you to let it be looked at."

"A wise precaution, I think," Obi-Wan murmured. 

"I don't _like_ violating your free will like that, Rex," Ahsoka said with the faint whine of her youthful voice for emphasis.

"Shh," Rex murmured, shaking his head as he sat up so that he could reach out to touch her, his fingers light against her knee, as he analyzed her words for several moments. The idea was revolting, infuriating... but if he knew anything about the longnecks, Ahsoka was probably right. "General Kenobi is right, and so were you. They'd be protected. You had to decide, like you would if we'd been poisoned and incapacitated." 

She breathed out and then relaxed from her defensive posture, hand shifting to take his. "Okay. Still don't like it. But I feel better knowing you understand. The medtechs are going to push the thing through analysis, and see if we can shut it down in the brothers without having to do surgery on them all. If we do… well, Kix and Helix will be the next down, and they can start taking care of our men." 

"That's the plan, and it will work, if we can just keep things quiet while we do it," Obi-Wan said, frowning, because how were they going to hide that, if it came to it?

Rex wrapped his hands around hers, holding on, glad to see her settling down... then he glanced to General Kenobi, knowing that furrow of his brow. Something was bothering him. The 'keep it quiet', possibly? "What is it, sir? What'm I missing?" 

"Working out the logistics, if they become necessary. As we have no way of being certain that the Fleet is not infiltrated. We have no way of knowing if there are more Slicks out there. I know the Senator is willing to cycle the Army through this facility, but such movements can't be kept top-secret." Obi-Wan shook his head. "We have to hope a way to disable all of them at once does come up," he told Ahsoka.

She sighed, frowning as well and sinking in on herself, then she brightened. "No, we play it up that we do suspect a spy network, Master! It will mean Helix and Kix will have to teach every man they can to perform the procedure, with a surgi-droid, but we do that and send them out with a supposed encryption program to deliver… they handle the medic, and then the medic gives out in-depth physicals to screen for supposed toxins and mind-altering chemicals to get their units done."

"What if the medic is compromised?" Obi-Wan countered, but he knew, like she did, that most of the medics believed more strongly in the Vod'e than even the commanders did.

Rex considered that, squeezing Ahsoka's fingers again for that she'd brightened, for that they were turning over ways to best protect the Army from however this Sith coward's trick before anything else... and she did have a point. "That just might work, sirs, if it comes to having to do things the 'slow way'. And might turn up a few problems. too. Since you're right, General, the whole of the GAR can't come through one planet." 

He hated to think there might be more traitors out there, more that would not just leave like Cut, but actually act against their brothers... but nothing was impossible. 

"It's a possibility," Obi-Wan agreed, even as he applauded, internally, that quick mind and planning ability. He'd have to tell Anakin.

"So, Rexter, think you can walk a bit? I know where we're staying until the medtechs turn up answers, and you, my Captain, need to eat!" Ahsoka stood from her chair to glare at Rex. "It's like you've been pushing yourself ever since the bombing, and not fixing things once it settled down!"

"No more than the General has," Rex retorted even as he let go of her to get smoothly to his feet, "and of course I can walk 'a bit'."

"He can use the Force to keep existing; you can't," she fussed. She didn't hover, though, moving to the usual distance from him for a walk. She was not going to be an idiot, or deviate from her original plan concerning Rex and emotions. Though apparently Rex himself felt she had waited too long in that horrible future.

Then again, their time together had been more limited, because of the Rebellion. This time, that pressure wouldn't be there.

Obi-Wan watched the pair of them leaving, then focused on Cody. It was somewhat worrying that his commander was sleeping more firmly… but then, he hadn't been in as paranoid a state as Rex. Maybe that was why.

Cody slowly realized he was being watched -- and on the heels of that, realized that he was _not_ where he had last been and snapped awake, going from prone to sitting up in a matter of breaths, his eyes sweeping the room. He found his General next to him, and partially relaxed. "Sir?" 

"I'd tell you to take it easy, Cody, but that seems to be impossible for you," Obi-Wan said, easily moving out of his chair to come perch on the edge of the berth. He slid his hand to the man's cheek, since they were alone in a place he felt was secure. "Ahsoka said she is sorry, but it was needed. Rex likened the cause to one of us doing medical aid to you if you were incapacitated."

Cody let his eyes half-close, his General's voice calm and steady while the touch was proof that they were completely secure. Those two combined were reason to stop trying to remember how he'd gotten here and accept that with _jetii_ , sometimes you just had no idea. 

He nodded a little at the relay of Rex's assessment, then asked, "And what do you think of his assessment, sir?" 

"I agree, but like Ahsoka, wish it hadn't been necessary." Obi-Wan sighed softly at it all. "Are you going to make me repeat the vileness, or just accept that we headed off a Sith plot?"

Cody shrugged one shoulder, leaning into his General's hand. "I'll make Rex tell me later. Him, I outrank." 

Obi-Wan snorted at that. "Good. Now, I believe Ahsoka and Rex had the right of it by leaving. Care to join me, or do you need a few more minutes to shake off the effects?"

"It's a hospital," Cody replied, shifting to swing his legs off the berth and check if he was ready to stand, "of course I want to leave." This one wasn't even the normal, soothing white of home, but tinted everywhere. 

"Oh good, you really are Cody," Obi-Wan teased him, smirking a little. "Follow me, then, and we'll go settle into the quarters the Senator has provided us."

"Why're we staying planetside, sir?" Cody asked, once he'd decided that yes, he was fine to stand and trail his General. That wasn't normal, and he was about finished with strange things happening in his immediate proximity for a few hours. "Or is that more of what I need to ask Rex?"

"Long story short, we're waiting on intel, so that we can decide how to correct the issue in the Vod'e," Obi-Wan said. "Rex has details, or you can corner Ahsoka herself, who brought the issue to our awareness." 

He most carefully didn't consider that they were both planetside, that he had given strict orders on communications to them, and that there would be both a bed and a shower available. No, he was not thinking about how to spoil his commander at all.

"Think I'll avoid 'cornering' her, sir," Cody replied, shooting the side of his General's face a look that probably revealed exactly how bad an idea he thought that would be, "but I may ask. I... saw her beads; is she really coming back? Rumors and profanity have been flying fast and furious, you know." 

"Don't I ever?" Obi-Wan shook his head. "She was invited back. If she has allowed Anakin to put her beads back on, then yes, she is coming back to the 501st, where she should be," he answered that. "You'll probably find one where you find the other anyway. As Anakin will be tied up as our official contact with the Senator."

There was a difference in how his General said his unofficial General's name, in how he mentioned the Senator, and Cody made a curious noise before he thought better of it. "...situation normal there, then." 

Obi-Wan snorted, eyes twinkling with amusement. "It is and it isn't, Cody. Once we have all the men protected, there is more I will tell you, as Ahsoka has apparently been blessed or cursed with entirely too much information on what is needed now."

"Thus Rex and I's sudden siesta," Cody said, aware that the 'blessed or cursed' was fact, not hyperbole, from his General. It made his skin crawl, but if his brothers were in danger, he had to be grateful the Commander knew. They were out of the hospital, now, and the pretty, colorful streets of one of Naboo's cities -- he thought this was probably Theed, but wasn't certain yet -- stretched out around them. "...so if we're waiting on intel...?" 

His voice was possibly a little overly hopeful.

"It seems, Commander, that we have a bit of downtime to spend. And as I can't risk the men asking questions yet about your new scar, I fear you'll just have to share that downtime with me. Here." Obi-Wan's voice was even, though a touch amused.

New scar? Cody blinked, but that curiosity didn't hold his attention long, not when there was the apparent, blatant fact of time mostly-alone with his General. Mostly-alone, where the Legion would not be and neither of them would have to be so very careful... yes, he liked that thought quite a bit. With any luck, that even tone was concealing his General's actual opinion of matters. "I suppose I'll survive that, sir." 

"I am certain you can endure whatever we find to pass the time," Obi-Wan agreed in similar vein.

+++

"The good news," Padmé began, "is that they isolated the carrier signal and can send a self-destruct to the chip. The Vod'e will feel a slight sting, and then it is gone, incapable of being activated. The staff advises having it removed eventually to prevent brain tissue scarring from forming around it."

"And the bad?" Obi-Wan asked, his eyes watching as both captain and commander took in that bit.

"There's a massive push coming from the Separatists," she admitted. "This one doesn't seem to have hit the Republic intel, but my people are keeping their eyes out on trade routes, and there are a number of them reporting fluctuations in their hyperdrives that indicate they were passed or passing numerous ships.

"Which means, once we send that signal out, you five need to go back to working on the war, and I need to get to Coruscant to push the political side of it all."

"One of us should escort you," Obi-Wan argued. "The Council still has to be informed."

Anakin was relieved to hear that there would be an easy solution to the problem of these chips, that they would be able to so swiftly disable the Sith trap and keep the Vod'e free -- to have their own minds and wills, at least -- but he did not care for the idea of separating from his wife, or of her being the one to carry the news to the Council. At the same time, he knew he _could not_ be the one to go back with her. 

If he did... No, he wasn't thinking about that. Couldn't think about that. He was with his padawan and his captain, his legion right above them... he was all right. "We do need to see if we can find anything else _he_ left on the planet, given that was the excuse we used to get out here. Master, is there anyone else from the Order close to us, that could join us?" 

"I could probably -- "

"No." Ahsoka looked at them all when they reacted to her interruption. "I was there, Skyguy. I got first-hand accounts from survivors. I need to carry this to the Council. And… as I am pretty sure based on what I got told, this was the beginning of setting you up by separating me from your side, making you distrust the Council more, we can keep things a little more under wraps if I am not seen immediately back in your company."

She knew none of that was going to set well with the two Jedi, or the Vod'e, but she was counting on Padmé to be logical and see the point.

The thought of _Ahsoka_ going back into the Sith's orbit was even worse than the thought of his _wife_ going, and Anakin did **not** like it. He could feel Rex's edge of sharply pained dismay, and that only put more intensity in the glare he leveled at his padawan... but he bit his tongue on his entire first set of responses. Mostly because he didn't want to say something he would regret. 

"Ahsoka has a point," Padmé began. "And she would be a good person to accompany me as she can probably gain me a specific ally within the Senate," she added, looking at the padawan who gave a happy little smile and nod. 

"Maybe two, if I can get an interview with Chandrila's Senator," Ahsoka agreed.

"It's logical," Obi-Wan agreed reluctantly, while feeling Cody's skeptical appraisal of this situation. "But, Ahsoka, how can you be certain the Council will listen, given recent events?"

"Oh that's just a matter of giving Master Yoda his lightsaber back," she answered that. "A lightsaber can't be faked."

Anakin grumbled, low and wordlessly frustrated, as his wife sided with his padawan on nearly the absolute last thing he wanted her to. "You know perfectly well that I _don't like_ this idea," he told her, "and I'm not risking you being set up _again_. So you're taking the _Twilight_ , and a half-squad from Torrent, and if you slip them for so much as a minute, Ahsoka..." 

He _would_ make her pay for it. "Rex, you get to wrangle the decisions on who goes back with her." 

Obi-Wan's head swiveled in surprise as his former padawan used the absolute most mature and rational way of dealing with this no-win situation concerning their envoy to the Council.

Ahsoka stared at her master for a very long moment, then broke into a grin. She couldn't believe he was giving in, and his rules were sensible. "As long as they don't turn up in orange, Rex… I'm still boggling at the idea of running a campaign of my own on Mandalore, okay?"

"What?!" came from Obi-Wan in the next heartbeat at those words.

"Oops."

That grin did _nothing_ to abate Anakin's ill-temper on the subject of Ahsoka on Coruscant, but the flash of alarm from his Master at Snips' comment about a campaign on -- but the only way the GAR could possibly operate on Mandalore itself was if -- 

"No, not 'oops', Ahsoka. _Explain_. Now." 

"Don't know all the details. My source there said I had half the legion, General-rank, and we'd been called in to support ousting the usurpers at the behest of one of the Deathwatch themselves." She could see this was not setting well with Obi-Wan, and she sighed, letting herself sink into the memories that were not hers. 

Both Jedi saw the flare of Force as she reached out of herself, or maybe deeper within before she spoke again.

"A sister… rebelling against Maul? And such sadness under the ruthlessness. She's hard, driven… and it's both Maul and his brother." She pulled back from those memories, looking at Obi-Wan. "You and Skyguy were needed elsewhere. Which is how I, not a Jedi, wound up with what became the 332nd before everything went boom."

"Satine would have to be dead," Obi-Wan said grimly, eyes shadowed. "I need to send word to her… if she'll listen to me."

"I can handle that," Padmé said. "She's my friend too, Obi-Wan." The use of his personal name rammed home that she understood his concerns.

Anakin nodded, though he was thinking very hard about the idea of knowing where that infernal cockroach was likely to poke his head up. The Duchess didn't care for him (not surprising, given that she hated everything he excelled at), so he wasn't about to poke at that side of things. But Maul, and Oppress, somewhere they already knew he would be... 

"So, I need my boys, Rexter, and then we really need to get moving," Ahsoka said, suddenly certain they needed to get the information in the right hands fast… and not willing to ignore that itch. She looked at her Master, curiously. "Did you find out about our clock?" she asked neutrally, referring to finding out if there were Skycrawlers already batched.

"Nothing certain yet," Anakin answered after a second to figure out what the kriff she meant, making damned certain that he didn't flush at that curious look. "But you're not leaving until there's no chance of you being that Order's first victim." 

She bared her teeth at the necessity of that wait, her lekku snapping with the irritation. "Alright… only because I'm not certain if I have another get out death free card hanging around," she teased, using black humor to cope with the situation.

"Not risking it, at all, Commander," Rex said very sharply.

Anakin wrapped the Force around her in a band the width of his arm, hugging her with it because he couldn't actually reach her. "Yeah, let's not test that." 

Padmé didn't really want to ask about that reference. She did understand the need to delay until the chips were deactivated though.

"I could give up a pair of my men to help with that detail," Cody offered. "If you think having a pair that are a little distant to the Commander's tricks might help." He said it evenly, but let the girl in question see the humor in his eyes.

"Hey! You've been hanging around with Master Kenobi too much if you're going to start picking on me!" she said, sticking her tongue out at him after.

Anakin laughed, amused, and glanced at Cody. "That'll be pretty tight quarters on the _Twilight_ , but it'd give everyone a little more backup, so I'd appreciate it, Cody." 

"We can handle tight quarters," Cody assured him. He and Rex would discuss it, and make certain Ahsoka had all of the skills she needed for backup in the mixed squad.

"Back to waiting, then, until we're ready to send that signal," Padmé said. 

+++

Once they were on the _Twilight_ , the men out of their hair (or headtails), and the cockpit closed off, Ahsoka relaxed a little. Padmé was a good co-pilot, but more, she might understand the next request.

"So, I didn't actually promise to not slip my guards," she pointed out. "And there's a reason. I owe someone, and the boys really, really don't get along with this person. Is there any way, once I've made my report, you can help me dodge them for a couple hours?"

She figured being open with Padmé would probably get her further than trying to dodge the boys and the Naboo Security forces. "If not… I'll figure out a way to do what needs to be done so she doesn't come at me on a vendetta."

Padmé turned in the seat, focusing on Ahsoka as she considered that request -- and the likelihood that her husband would absolutely lose his temper over Ahsoka being alone anywhere on on Coruscant for any length of time. 

"I don't think Anakin considered it necessary to get your promise in response to one of his ultimatums, Ahsoka," she pointed out. "But this sounds serious. So if you will take Moté or Rabé _with_ you, I will make you an opening to see to your debt."

"I appreciate it, Padmé. I think I can find her quickly, unless she's left Coruscant… and I don't think she has." Ahsoka settled back as they made the jump to hyperspace. "So, we spend the trip back teaching you how to shield," she added. "Because being near that kriffing filth is going to be dangerous unless I can teach you the no-thought trick."

"All right," Padmé agreed -- she'd been trying not to think about how that encounter was going to go, and mostly succeeding, but that could only last so long -- with a nod. "So how do we start?" 

"Breathing exercises are best, and meditation. Then I can start walking you through it… and if things don't go right, and you trust me, I can probably place small blocks for you," Ahsoka admitted. "But I have a feeling you'll pick it up easy, since you're already Sensitive anyway."

Padmé stared at her, shocked. "I'm what? Ahsoka?" 

The Togruta tipped her head to one side. "You're not like Jedi-level by a long shot, but… you're Force sensitive. You didn't know? I can feel it off of you and one of your ladies; I thought you knew it and that's how you were always a step ahead of things."

She was what? "No, I didn't... you're -- never mind, you wouldn't say it if you weren't sure. I... Naboo isn't one of the worlds that traditionally tests for sensitivity. I had no idea." She shook her head, her fingers wanting to rake through her hair, but it was up in an arrangement that she couldn't so much as touch. "That's... interesting. Let's just hope it helps as much as you think it will." 

"It will help." Ahsoka smiled at her and then moved to get started. This was too important to not do.

+++

Ahsoka Tano refused to be nervous. Mace Windu had been right on one thing: the Trial had been a testing point, one that she had come through and matured because of. More, though, her time in that future-that-must-not-be had shown her depths that she had never really suspected she had.

So it was that she walked into the Temple, chin up, the extra pair of sabers in the pockets of the actual robes she had chosen to wear. She had her usual kit on underneath them, but the robe and tunic and tabard would show the Council she respected them to a point.

She could wait to tear them apart until after the Sith were dead.

She ignored the whispers all around her; her leaving had been known, but here she was in traditional garments and wearing her silka beads again. Let them wonder, let them ask, but her business was with the Council.

It was with Yoda directly.

She got to the antechamber of the Council room, and looked at the Initiate handling announcements of arrivals that day. She refused to be nervous.

"Can you tell Master Yoda that I'm here, and I need to address the Council?" she asked in a sweet, neutral voice, not letting the grave importance of her mission show.

"Um. Yes, Padawan Tano?" the Initiate replied, and ducked inside. Xe returned in a few moments, looking at her with even more startled eyes. "Master Yoda says you should come in," xe told her, xir hand keeping the door open. 

Ahsoka steeled herself further. She could do this. She would do this. With head held high, she went inside the room, looking at each member present, noticing that most of the others were there by hologram… except Master Kenobi. Good, and she loved him more for truly letting her do this on her own. He could have tuned in, would have known today would be the day she arrived for the Council Meeting.

"Masters, I know when you last saw me I had declined to return to the Order, but I have been convinced that me leaving is exactly what the Sith want, and I'm not giving them the satisfaction," she said, with just enough of her cheekiness to make Plo's head nod with pleasure in her. She didn't dare sneak a look at Shaak Ti; she couldn't afford to be angry right now. And her Hunt Mother should have known better…

/Focus./

"I had a bit of a run-in with the Force expressing its opinions, and because of that, I know who the Sith is," she announced before Master Windu could start in on whatever it was he wanted to say to her.

"You know," Saesee Tiin rumbled, his golden eyes unsettled, "or you _think_ you know, Padawan? The Force is not often given to making things so... explicit, as that." 

/At least he's not contesting my rank. Or belonging./ Ahsoka fumbled out the small lightsaber, eyes moving to Master Yoda. "I know, because I touched an artifact that threw me decades into the future, and I saw the ultimate outcome of the Sith plan… with them as the winners.

She walked toward Yoda, biting at her lip as she remembered him so weak and frail and then dying. She knew the sadness was all in her face and lekku, but she couldn't help it. "I took this, after I spoke with the you there… as you no longer needed it, Master Yoda. I didn't have any lightsabers, and your student then thought it would be okay."

Plo Koon made a quiet noise, one she was fairly certain was distress, in his chair at the end of the ring, while Ki-Adi-Mundi's holo, next to Yoda, looked over in blatant unease. She could not observe the reactions in the rest of the Council, and she was more grateful than not for that. 

The eldest of the Order watched her for a few moments, something unreadable in his powerful green eyes -- oh, it was good to see him strong, no matter how hurt she still was -- before he extended his hands and took the lightsaber. He laid it on his knee and one hand dropped inside his robe, to the side, bringing his lightsaber out. 

There were small differences, she saw, with them bare centimeters apart, but Master Yoda held one hand over each, his eyes closing. After several long moments, he re-opened his eyes. "Mine," he said, more past her and to the rest of the Council than to her, "this lightsaber is. Sing of grief and pain, failure and loss, it does. Listen to the padawan, we must." 

Ahsoka breathed a small sigh of relief. "Grief, pain, loss… all of it. I wound up working with the last Jedi--"

She had to wait as there was an uproar of voices, shocking her some, to hear them so undisciplined. It went on for several moments before Master Windu cleared his throat, and she could continue.

"He was barely trained beyond basic combat and endurance," she continued. "He'd only had a few weeks of time with you, Master Yoda, and a few days with Master Kenobi prior to his death." She had to swallow hard at that, because she did love her master's master in her own way. "The Republic is gone in that future. An Empire replaced it. Led by the Emperor… that we all know as our Chancellor."

Her Hunt Mother whistled -- _whistled_! -- a sharp, shocked, and _profane_ denial from Kamino, one that joined Kit Fisto's "What? No!" and Master Allie's horrified gasp. To her right and left, Master Windu and Master Tiin were frighteningly still. 

Master Yoda's ears drooped, his body slumping a little more as his fingers closed on both lightsabers. She wished she knew what he was thinking.

"Padawan," Master Allie managed, "are you -- That is a -- " 

"It's not an accusation, Master Allie," Ahsoka told her directly. "I'm here from my master, and my grand-master. They have taken the brunt of what I brought back… because my master has been being groomed, prepped, and prodded by that man for all the years he was in this Temple!" A little of her temper came through in those words, and she had to mentally step back. "Forgive me, Masters. Fixing the mess that was in his head left me exhausted enough to sleep a full human's sleep cycle."

"You fixed it?" Ki-Adi-Mundi asked, eyes narrowing to regard her.

"I had help," Ahsoka said, feeling the Daughter's connection flutter up a little higher, reinforcing her signature in the Force. That made the more perceptive ones, like Plo Koon, sit up straighter.

Saesee Tiin made a quietly startled noise, and Master Yoda's eyes widened, while behind her Shaak Ti asked, "...multiple hours, little huntress?" 

"Yes, Master Ti," Ahsoka answered that, turning to regard her hunt-mother. She chose, then, to let go of her lingering feeling of betrayal and anger; there was too much at stake for such.

"When you say 'the mess that was in his head', Padawan," Eeth Koth asked, his voice a low, unfamiliar rumble, "what do you truly mean? Knight Skywalker is... difficult, but devoted." 

Ahsoka closed her eyes for a long moment, then turned slowly, looking at every member of the Council in turn. "It's no secret that my Master has faced a lot of challenges, and that he's … worried several of you because of shadows on his future. It's kind of hard not to be shadowed, though, when a Sith has been taking every confidence, every attempt to understand events by telling them to a trusted friend, and using them to plant seeds of discontent. 

"It would be pretty hard to be as strong a Knight as he is, when his entire training bond to his master had been undermined with compulsions that pushed him to not trust Master Kenobi. That he's done so much good when there were simmering little bombs, sitting in his mind, trying to push him to take the easy path, the one that led to power instead of compassion. 

"Frankly, Masters, Anakin Skywalker has been fighting the Sith this whole time, and he was eventually going to lose that fight because no one could see past their worries against him to find all the ways he was manipulated." She ended her words facing Mace Windu directly, her eyes a little harder than usual.

"Skywalker has been brash and abrasive his entire time in the Temple, Padawan," Mace began.

"That's not quite true, Master Windu," Plo said, cutting in and speaking up for the Knight. "He adapted poorly to living in the Temple, yes, but Ahsoka has a point. He was still a child when he came here, and we did not try to understand his perspective. Had we done so, we might have learned of the nature of the enemy much sooner."

Ahsoka's heart leaped for her Finder jumping to the defense of her Master. Maybe, just maybe, the Council wasn't a complete loss?

Ki-Adi-Mundi nodded slowly, looking at Master Plo. "He was impulsive as a boy, but cheerful and outgoing," he said, "when I had the opportunity to engage with him, not abrasive at all. Not for... _several_ years. 

"Years in which each of us failed to be any aid to him, because we feared his shadows -- oh, do not scowl at me, Yoda, you have been the worst for fearing him despite his being of your own line!" 

Ahsoka had a tiny part of her mind jumping up and down, cheering for that defense. She managed to attain her closest impersonation of serenity, though, not wanting to jeopardize anything.

"I concur with my fellow Masters on that, Mace," Stass Allie said firmly. "My cousin's former padawan often partnered Obi-Wan, and their padawans may not have gotten along well, but it was no different than when Siri and Obi-Wan clashed over their interpretations of how to be Jedi. Adi was always impressed with the young man."

"And all of you are missing the vital point that Ahsoka has said," Shaak Ti pointed out, bringing things back to the discussion. "Ahsoka, in this future you visited, Skywalker fell?"

"Yes, Master. It is one reason why he, and Master Kenobi, would prefer to remain at the frontlines," Ahsoka said. "Until the Senate can find the evidence to undo the Chancellor."

"You already informed the Senate?" Agen Kolar asked, startled.

"Not the Senate itself," Ahsoka said, wondering if every Master in the room thought all padawans were idiots, or just her. "As the senator from his own planet, and the leading voice in the peace faction, I have informed Senator Amidala, and have an appointment with Senator Chuchi later. I trust both of them in discretion on who else to ask for aid, and this has to come from them!

"Because, according to what I learned, the Jedi were declared traitors, and executed en masse, for trying to handle this on their own," she finished.

That drew a half-dozen simultaneous exclamations, too many for her to sort out, and once again she found herself waiting. 

Master Windu spoke into the chaos, sharply, and the chamber fell silent again. "You did say you had encountered the 'last' of the Jedi," he said slowly. "But... it takes rather a lot to kill even one of us. All? 

"How was it done... Ahsoka?" 

The young woman heard that Mace was actually trying to invest fully in the warnings she had brought. That helped her immensely; he held a lot of power within the Order, with his sway over so many others.

"Our men, Master." She held up both hands to silence the uproar, even as she appreciated their complete inability to believe that. "I know, I know! But one of the people I interacted with in that time was a surviving vod. And he explained how it was done.

"They all had chips, Masters, that would make it impossible to refuse to follow certain orders. One of which was an order to kill all Jedi as traitors." She glanced around, memorizing their horror-stricken faces to tell the boys later. "That's why I did not come here directly. And another reason I needed Senator Amidala's help. Naboo is out of the way, and they respect our men as sentients, not property like other systems do. We got the chips out of two officers, analyzed them, and sent a shutdown signal to the chips.

"That way, if the Sith managed to _see_ me revealing him to you, that order can't go out and start the massacre."

Shaak Ti made a low, edged noise. "Many of the cadets, even the adults waiting to be deployed, came to the medics complaining of a pain in their heads, several hours ago... Your 'signal'?" 

Even in the holo-projection, it was obvious that her lekku had bleached, her facial skin lost color. 

"Yes, Master," Ahsoka said with sympathy for that. "I do apologize to all for worrying you, if your men reported that to you, but we couldn't let news of us circumventing the chip get out. The techs that helped us do recommend removal, eventually, to prevent scarring around it, but they are inert now."

"A small mercy," Plo said, making note to go check on his men as soon as they were done.

"What do we do now, Padawan?" Adi asked.

"Help find the evidence? Change the known battle plans to throw off the Chancellor's ability to predict us? And for the love of the Force, don't do anything that can be labeled as sedition, treason, or otherwise make the Jedi look worse than we already do!" Ahsoka pleaded with them. "It's a razor's edge we walk until that man is gone."

Master Windu nodded slightly. "All wise suggestions, Ahsoka." He sighed, taking a slow breath. "A Sith -- the Sith Master -- at the very heart of our Republic. Horrific. But we will do what we must to protect the innocent that suffer from his schemes. Are there other things you would tell us, Padawan, of what you saw?" 

Ahsoka considered. She was not naming the last Jedi as Skyguy's kid; that would have to come out when it came around. She closed her eyes, dipping harder into the memories of the life she might have had, which made the flare of the Daughter's presence brighten far more around her.

"The Fleet is compromised already. Tarkin is firmly Palpatine's man," she said, with an odd layer of maturity to her voice. "I do not know how deeply it is compromised; some of the men followed orders blindly, obeying their service oaths.

"If Palpatine escapes us, it is likely that the non-human systems closest to the Separatists will be targeted first, based on the worlds that suffered the most under the Empire. Other than that, I cannot think of more to say." She opened her eyes, a ghostly sheen of white energy on them before she was able to let go of that life.

Master Windu nodded again, though his eyebrows had arched high up, and there were surprised expressions on everyone else she could see, as well. "Thank you, then, Padawan Tano. For everything you have done. Go now, and may the Force continue to be with you." 

Ahsoka bowed her head to him, but straightened. "I do have one request, Master Windu. In the interest of both paying a debt and possibly winning us an ally, I am requesting Asajj Ventress's lightsabers."

"What? Why?" Stass Allie asked, thrown completely out of her ruminations on which politicians to go to.

"Because she risked everything to give me a chance to survive, and because I do think she wishes to be more than she has been. At the very least, it may keep her from falling back into the Separatist cause."

"You would have us re-arm the woman who has killed so many of our men?" Eeth Koth asked, frowning at her. 

"No. I would show a trust and faith that she has never been shown, in order to help guide her away from such actions, Master Koth," Ahsoka said firmly. "She will acquire lightsabers on her own, I have no doubt. By giving hers back, I hold to my word with her, show that we have honor, and give her a better example."

Shaak Ti felt a warmth for the girl, her head ducking a moment to hide the expression it drew to her lips.

Master Windu was silent for a few seconds, obviously weighing her words, then nodded. "Granted, Padawan. I will retrieve them for you, once we adjourn from this session."

"Thank you." She bowed to them all before exiting the chamber to leave them to their debating. She would go wait in the small meditation room nearby, to center and focus herself. Finding Asajj… now that was going to be tricky, especially with one of Padmé's women with her.

+++

Ahsoka had decided she never, ever wanted to be a politician's consular. She did not know _how_ Master Allie did that regularly. Now, though, she had finally escaped, her boys with her as she came to the _Resolute_ , having dropped off the pair of 212th boys on their ship.

She was not expecting to see more than the usual number of vod'e in the landing bay, all supposedly working on munitions or ships, or just running errands as she stepped off the _Twilight_ , Fives and the rest behind her.

"Officer on deck!" got out of someone's mouth before she could wave it off, and they all snapped to for her and Fives.

"At ease," she called, trying to fight the lump in her throat. She _knew_ there shouldn't be this many men in the bay right now, which meant they had been conspiring to be on hand for her return.

"Yes sir," came one familiar voice, as one of the closest vod'e moved -- not back to a task, but towards her -- closer, a smile on his lips that belied the teardrop under his right eye. "It's so good to have you back, Commander. The bridge had just about gotten too tense to be on!" 

Ahsoka smiled broadly at that and threw herself at him, hugging him tight, sense-memory of armor under her hands and against her face so refreshing. "Oh Tup, you are a wonderful sight to see!" She then let go of him and looked at the others. "All of you are. It's good to be home!"

Tup had stiffened for a moment, obviously startled, but then his arms curved carefully around her back, low to avoid her lekku, and he hugged her in return. 

"Why's he the only one that gets a hug?" Jesse muttered, but he was grinning as he asked, and Volt elbowed him in the ribs the next moment anyway. "We're glad you are." 

"I'll hug the rest of you next game we play; I need to report in," Ahsoka said, still grinning at them all. 

That got a mixture of cheers and playful groans from the gathering of men, along with a few, 'We knows' that followed her as she headed for a turbolift. 

She picked up her pace a little once out of the bay; she wanted to see her Master, reassure him that everything was going to be fine. It didn't take her long to get to the bridge, first glance going to Rex, second one taking in the bridge crew, and finally landing on her master. As he didn't seem to be talking to anyone at the moment, she scooted up to his side and let her hand touch his arm briefly.

"Hey Skyguy. The ball's rolling now, and I got everything done I needed to."

"Hey, Snips," Anakin answered, his hand sliding from that touch of hers to the back of her shoulder, resting lightly there for a few moments as the last of the tension he'd been under over _her_ vanished with the feel of her skin. Most of it had left him when the _Twilight_ came out of hyperspace and he could feel that she was safe, but the physical contact was more reassuring. "Good, glad to hear it. Any of _them_ give you too much trouble?"

"Nothing I couldn't handle, Skyguy," she said, cocky tone on display to show she was perfectly okay. "Didn't even have to get too spooky. The lightsaber did the trick I needed. Both Master Plo and Master Mundi pinned ears back about you, though. And then Master Windu actually stopped being an argumentative glitch."

Anakin did _not_ repeat the 'pinned ears back', nor did he ask the 'over me' that wanted to escape his lips -- neither were appropriate to voice in front of his padawan. He snorted darkly at that last, "I don't think I realized he knew how to do that. 

"I'm impressed. Good work, Snips." 

"Just trying to take care of my _aliit_ ," she said, demurring the praise. She didn't need to be praised. She was only doing what had to be done, because she was the one with the data.

"I know," Anakin told her, letting it go, though he was so proud of her for being able to face the Council alone, so soon. "Any instructions from them?"

"Nope. They didn't press when I said our unit and Master Kenobi's needed to stay on the front lines," she told him. "Master Stass was going to work over her contacts, and the rest are going investigating. I didn't ask for the full plans from there; I'm just a padawan after all."

"Nothing 'just' about you, Snips, but all right. Obi-Wan will tell us what we need to know," Anakin told her, breathing a soft sigh of relief.

" _She_ sends her greetings and all that mushy stuff," Ahsoka said, keeping her voice low so they wouldn't be overheard. "Also, staying at her place totally beat being in ours at the Temple. Even if Threepio tried to kill my steak."

"...it's a steak? It's already dead. What do you mean he tried to kill it?"

"He cooked all the blood out of it!" she protested.

Anakin had to laugh at her mournful tone, even as he shook his head a little. "Right, you and you ultra-rare preferences. Did you two get that straightened out?"

"Yep. He's now going to just warm my steaks up, if I'm ever around for him to cook again."

Ahsoka relaxed into what was normal, into being Anakin's right hand, and let the horrors slip away. Soon, this would be done. She would look forward to spoiling a pair of babies, of being part of the Vod'e life, and being the best Jedi she could be.


End file.
